Complications from Abortions (Annual Report) Bill [HL]

Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 13th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I commend the noble Lord’s Bill to the House. It offers a moderate proposal that ought not to be controversial. Whatever one’s view on the issue of abortion, it is clearly in the interests of public health and patient safety to ensure that accurate data is collated and reported concerning the scale and nature of complications from abortions, as with any medical procedure. As the noble Lord has explained, current reporting is deficient and has not caught up with the changes concerning how an increasing number of abortions now occur.

As well as supporting the comments that the noble Lord has made, I wish to make two further points in relation to the Bill in the short time available to me. First, I note that while the 2023 Department of Health publication on which the Bill is based records data more accurately than previous reporting, it acknowledges in its own annexe that it does not include complications under the code O044. That code records “incomplete” abortions, where part of the unborn baby remains inside the mother after an abortion.

That report includes hospital episode statistics relating to incomplete abortions where they have led to additional complications but not to incomplete abortions themselves. However, given that any incomplete abortion routinely requires further treatment to remove the remaining parts of the baby to avoid the risk of infection, it seems to me that those also ought to be included in any accurate recording of statistics.

The second point I want to make is in relation to Northern Ireland, as all noble Lords would expect. While I understand that the Bill relates to England in order to correspond to the November 2023 report, I would like to see an improvement in data collection and reporting in Northern Ireland. Since abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland, reporting on abortions has been woefully inadequate. Indeed, we appear to have even less data concerning complications than the limited data published in England.

The regulations attached to the Northern Ireland abortion law require abortion providers to report

“Particulars of any complications experienced by the woman up to the date of discharge”.

That means we have the same problem as in the rest of the UK, because complications which arise after discharge, and which come to light in a hospital setting only when a woman seeks further treatment, are unlikely to be recorded in official statistics. It would be really good if we had better information and data in Northern Ireland, as here in the rest of the UK.

Data informs health trends; it gives transparency and understanding, but, above all, it ensures patient safety. The purpose of this Bill is to have accurate data, and I am very happy to support it.

Windsor Framework (Retail Movement Scheme: Plant and Animal Health) (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2024

Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2024 Lords Chamber

Does my noble friend the Minister agree with me that debate is necessary in a democratic society? But we all have to ask: is this in the best interests of our businesses and communities? The debate is necessary, but the continuous badgering on about the inadequacies and iniquities of the Windsor Framework is definitely not helpful to businesses. As their immediate priority, they want the resolution of those difficulties, and they want full implementation. Can the Minister give us the Government’s view on sustaining the economy and businesses in Northern Ireland?

[Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I will be brief—I know that most people say that, but I genuinely do want to be. I refer to my registered interests, particularly my recent appointment as chair of InterTrade UK.

Paragraph 107 of the Safeguarding the Union Command Paper states:

“We have therefore already taken forward the steps necessary to enable the expansion of the arrangements permanently to allow at least an additional 26 Rest of World meat and plant products to be covered by the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme. This will include the critical retailer proposal for Thai poultry, as well as Chinese poultry, and a range of cut flowers and herbs, and we will provide the same commitments on safeguards as we have for all existing Rest of World goods covered in the scheme”.


Part 3 of this statutory instrument gives statutory power for the EU-approved poultry meat plants in China and Thailand to be exempted from provisions of animal health law, but EU-approved meat plants in Brazil are not included. This is an important point, although I accept that it is niche. It is especially important for a company that raised the issue with the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee—namely, Universal Meat Company from Northern Ireland. It imports a significant amount of tonnage from Brazil.

In response to concerns raised, Defra has said that the list of products included in the scope of this legislation was developed with industry stakeholders in the United Kingdom on the basis of factors such as the volumes of trade and the impact on supply chains, as the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie, said. The department went on to list other ways to deal with Brazilian goods. But it would be so much more straightforward if this exemption included those Brazilian plants. In its conclusion, the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee indicated the “importance of consulting widely”, which is an important point—I hope the Minister will reflect on that. It is about not just volumes in a UK context but what matters in a Northern Ireland context. That is important.

Given the specific concerns about Brazil and the fact that the factories concerned there are EU approved—it is important to say that—can the Minister proactively look again at this specific issue? The volumes may not be as large as the two countries listed—China and Thailand —in respect of poultry meat in UK terms, but, for Northern Ireland, Brazil is a significant supplier and its absence from this list will impact on the supply chain, consumer choice and customer cost. That is an important point.

Noble Lords are aware that I have been appointed chair of Intertrade UK and, while I await terms of reference from the Government, I intend to closely monitor the impact of statutory instruments. It is important that we have these debates and find out where there are difficulties, such as the one before the House today. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, for bringing this Motion to the Floor of the House; otherwise, we would not have had the opportunity to raise what are important issues for suppliers, businesses and consumers in Northern Ireland. It has given me the opportunity to raise this specific concern and I hope the Minister can address it.

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, I too can be quite brief, but there are a few points I want to register. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, for the Motion and for her helpful remarks.

These regulations testify to something we always feared: that differential arrangements for Northern Island, in which it remains closer to EU laws and rules, would end up being exploited to restrict our freedom and keep the UK-EU relationship one of high alignment, and that is what has happened. It has become harder to get the gains of setting our own laws in our own interests, and there is a risk that we remain in the political and psychological tractor beam of the EU. And so it has proved.

Ever since the original sin, as I regard it, of the joint reports in December 2017, it has been impossible to entirely undo the agreement about the imposition of EU law in Northern Ireland. The Johnson Government, both when I was responsible and under my successors, tried to water down commitments and made it clear they could not be durable, and eventually did their best to unpick it, culminating in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which was so intensely disliked in this House. But that Bill fell, with Prime Ministers Johnson and Truss, and the Sunak Government, having promised one thing, then did another and agreed the Windsor Framework. This did little to improve the situation in practice, but the big change it did make was that the British Government were now actively committed to defending protocol-like arrangements, and that meant defending EU interests in areas covered by the protocol in Northern Ireland.

What we are seeing happen with the regulations today is what we always said would happen: the easy way out would always be taken, and we would increasingly choose to align ourselves with EU laws rather than go our own way. These regulations mark a new stage in that process. Hitherto, the Windsor Framework arrangements were confined to the GB-Northern Ireland “border”, but now we are also aligning a GB external border with EU laws—admittedly for a limited category of third-country goods. As others have said, including my noble friend Lady Lawlor, it will not end there. The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, which is also being considered by your Lordships’ House, has exactly this purpose in mind, and is much more sweeping in what it can do. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, pointed out, this pre-emptive legislative cringing to the EU hardly even brings us any benefits. It still does not improve the “border processes” between GB and Northern Ireland, and the same will be true of the product regulation Bill.

As I have said before, these arrangements make little sense unless they are the first stage in a process in which the second stage will be formal adoption of EU laws enforced by EU methods. That is, of course, how you get the paperwork to be eliminated, but at what price? We have the gradual watering down of this country’s democracy still further in favour of laws set elsewhere.

To conclude, there are only three possible destinations from where we are. I have just described one, which is the gradual, further dissolution of UK sovereignty in important areas of the economy. The second is an attempt to make the unworkable work, to constantly offset the complexities and the nonsensicalities of the Windsor Framework by more and more complex legislation, with more and more exemptions and special treatment, creating a bigger regulatory burden and, in practice, separating out Northern Ireland still further. If we go down this road, we will be dealing with more and more unsatisfactory pieces of legislation like this one.

The third route is the one that, one day, must be taken and has been referred to already, and that is the route of mutual enforcement, for the Windsor Framework to be ditched and for UK laws to apply in Northern Ireland, as they do anywhere else in this country. In my view, that is the right way forward. I do not think the current arrangements can or will stand. They are overcomplex, create too many political anomalies and simply will not work over time, and it is only a matter of time before that becomes clear. One day, we will sweep away the Windsor Framework and make this a properly United Kingdom once again.

Can the Minister say which of these three paths she believes the Government are on? What is their approach to the Windsor Framework, and what is the direction of travel?

Whitehall: Prioritising Performance

Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his clarification that this is the think tank, which might have been a useful clarification as a first point. The report looks at brand issues, and there is a quote within the report that the Civil Service brand is “battered”. One of the things that the report makes very clear is that, as a Government, we need the best people to get the best results for the country. In Keir Starmer’s message to the Civil Service on his succession to the role of Prime Minister, he made it clear that he knew how much civil servants believe in what they are doing for the country, and he said that they had taught him a great deal about what public service really means.

[Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, one of the recommendations in the report is on the need for better succession planning for key roles and the need to keep an updated list ready for recruitment exercises. I urge the Minister to give due regard to this recommendation. This comes from my own experience with the Northern Ireland Civil Service. When you have a key person in a role performing an excellent job and he or she leaves, it can leave a huge gap, so this recommendation really is something to take on board.

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

All of us have probably come across points at which people are treated as almost indispensable. Part of the value of people stepping back and having a report of this kind is that we can focus on what those critical single points of failure are. I will feed back the noble Baroness’s comments to the relevant Minister.

Conversion Therapy Prohibition (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) Bill [HL]

Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee Excerpts

Friday 9th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I commend the discussion that has taken place thus far and the wide range of views that have been put forward. I am concerned about the ambiguity in this Bill and its vagueness; although it is short, its reach is extensive. The implications for free speech, freedom of religion and parenting are quite chilling.

There is a danger that this Bill will create a new orthodoxy and a whole category of opinions that must not be uttered, at the risk of criminal conviction. Supporters of a new law in this area have urged the UK to imitate the legislation in Victoria, Australia: the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act—the same terms that are found in the Bill before us.

One of the enforcement agencies—yes, enforcement agencies—in Victoria is the Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. Its list of what is considered illegal under the Act includes:

“a parent … refusing to support their child’s request for”

puberty blockers. It also says that

“not affirming someone’s gender identity”

is an illegal practice. Press reports say that parents of gender-confused children are holding clandestine meetings, living in fear of prosecution for trying to get help for their children. The Victoria commission has even issued guidance on how to pray. It says that prayers that talk about a person’s “need to repent” are likely to be illegal.

Apparently, that is what supporters of the Bill want here too. The co-founder of the Ban Conversion Therapy campaign, Jayne Ozanne, says a ban must cover “gentle, non-coercive prayer”. Another founder, Matthew Hyndman, says it must tackle the “pernicious power of prayer”. I was reflecting on that very offensive phrase when I came home from Holy Communion on Sunday, where those present heard the invitation from my minister:

“Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways”.


I thought to myself, is that going to be allowed under this new conversion therapy Bill?

One of the central tenets of Christianity is the need to repent. That is universal; it applies to us all. Is that now going to be challenged or likely to be illegal, as the Victoria commission said? I find that very chilling indeed.

Reference was made to the Church of England document that came out yesterday. It is worth looking at, because it states a difference between conversion therapy—physical and psychological coercion, which I think we are all against—and conversion practice. It says that the fluidity of definition is problematic. It raised concerns about boundaries, particularly in consideration of what conversion practice is, as opposed to conversion therapy. That is a very interesting point.

Further, the Bill does not require any proof that the accused used, for example, threatening, abusive or insulting words. Even the most gentle words can be criminalised, so long as a court can be convinced that to you “aimed” your words at a person—those are the terms in the Bill—and that your words demonstrated “an assumption” about the preference of one sexual orientation or gender identity over another, and that your intended purpose was to “suppress” someone’s expression of orientation or identity. The court has to read your mind about all of these things. Despite the fact that no harm is caused, intended, likely foreseen or even foreseeable, you can be convicted and face a fine up to the maximum level, as has been pointed out.

According to the Bill, the practice would also have to demonstrate an assumption that any sexual orientation or gender identity is inherently preferable to another. Quite apart from questions over what that would look like or how it would be shown, it is a very broad test. It could be met by anyone who believes that being male or female is tied to biology and who rejects the idea of gender identity. I note that this gender-critical belief is protected by equality and human rights law. There are many of that opinion in this House, and certainly many outside of it.

It is clear that an offence looking at people’s assumptions is getting into the realm of examining whether their thoughts and attitudes are acceptable. It is very dangerous territory, and I urge the House to reject this Bill.

Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Follow-up Report (European Affairs Committee)

Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee Excerpts

Monday 11th September 2023 Grand Committee

[Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I, too, thank all members of the committee under the chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Jay, for the many hours of work which have brought us not just the initial report but all the previous work too.

When reading the report, it struck me again how the announcement of the Windsor Framework was so badly mishandled. There was something seriously wrong in government communication when they sold the Windsor Framework in the way they did. How much better would it have been if the Prime Minister had said, as this report says, “I believe this is an improvement on the protocol, but significant issues remain”? My assessment is that, if that had been the announcement, Ulster people would have said, “Fair enough. At least progress has been made”, but instead we were told that it was the best deal ever thought of.

As the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan, said, Northern Ireland is a small-business economy, and that is not really dealt with under the Windsor Framework. The trusted trader scheme deals with large retailers, which is helpful, but it does not deal with small businesses. I agree with the noble Baroness’s point in relation to that and about the need for information, which is important. It did not have to be this way: the Alternative Arrangements Commission brought forward a range of ways in which all this could have been dealt with, but it was decided not to go down that road.

I also underscore what the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, said about what has been going on recently. Advertisements have been taken out in Scottish newspapers from horticulture companies saying that they cannot send goods to Northern Ireland. There was also the shocking announcement advising customers to book in early for the passenger ferries from Cairnryan to Northern Ireland so that they can deal with border controls.

To ease the Minister’s response to the noble Lord, Lord Hain, on why the Secretary of State was listening to just one party—of course, I am no longer a member of the Democratic Unionist Party—it was because the other parties all wanted the protocol rigorously implemented and could see no difficulty with it, despite the obvious problems. My noble friend Lord Dodds made that point. We were also told that no party should have a veto. I was kept out of office as First Minister for three years, not 18 months, by Sinn Féin, and I have very little recollection of many voices from this place pointing out that it was a denial of democracy, as it very much was, or dealing with constitutional issues.

I have used up all my time. I commend this report and wish the Government well in the investment conference. We have young, bright, skilled people in Northern Ireland, and I hope that the conference is very successful.