Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill

Baroness Newlove Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 7th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Newlove (Con)]

My Lords, it has been so heartwarming to listen to every speaker. Every bit of wording has been correct and it is so heartwarming to hear that, after so long, we are going to have something set in stone to protect future lives.

The events of the Manchester Arena bombing are seared into our collective memory. The shock and horror that we felt as the news unfolded on our television screens remain deeply ingrained. Any act of terrorism is abhorrent, but an attack targeting an event attended by thousands of young people is an evil of unimaginable cruelty.

Today, we remember the victims: Saffie-Rose Roussos, Nell Jones, Sorrell Leczkowski—apologies, I knew I might get that wrong—Eilidh MacLeod, Megan Hurley, Olivia Campbell-Hardy, Chloe Rutherford, Liam Curry, Georgina Callander, Courtney Boyle, John Atkinson, Philip Tron, Kelly Brewster, Elaine McIver, Angelika Klis, Marcin Klis, Alison Howe, Lisa Lees, Michelle Kiss, Wendy Fawell, Jane Tweddle and Martyn Hett. These names are not just a roll call; they represent lives filled with dreams, love and potential, all cruelly taken that night. My heart goes out to their families, who will carry the pain of their loss forever. As many grieving families will attest, you never truly move on from such heartbreak; you simply learn to live alongside it.

Let us also not forget that over a thousand other concertgoers suffered physical and psychological injuries that night. Many young people witnessed death and destruction first hand, a trauma that they will carry for the rest of their lives. The impact of this attack ripples far beyond those whom we lost.

Among those affected, as we have all said, is the tremendously courageous Figen Murray, Martyn Hett’s remarkable mother. I have had the privilege of meeting Figen several times; most recently, I was privileged to present her with the Women of the Year achievement award for her extraordinary efforts to make change in her son’s name. Figen is indeed an incredible and dignified lady, whose tenacity and grit are an inspiration to everyone in this Chamber. In fact, I recall her sharing how, during the trial, she was allowed to bring her knitting into court—a simple but meaningful comfort for her. As a knitter myself, I appreciated how this small act of compassion from the police and security helped her to endure the harrowing process that she listened to on a daily basis.

Despite facing her own health challenges, Figen has also achieved other extraordinary things. She walked 200 miles, from the site of her son’s death to London, to raise awareness of Martyn’s law—a campaign born of her pain but driven by her hope that no one would suffer as she and other families did that night.

I welcome this Bill, which has been a long time coming. If implemented effectively, it has such potential to save lives. The need for such a law is painfully clear. The Manchester Arena bombing was not an isolated incident. While successful attacks have, thankfully, been fewer since 2017, the threat of terrorism has not gone away. Only last year, Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes, the UK’s most senior counterterrorism officer, warned:

“It’s hard to remember a more unstable, dangerous and uncertain world”


and that Britain faces

“the most acute period since the Cold War”.

As the tactics of terrorists evolve, so too must our strategies to combat them. Over the past decade, we have seen a shift from centrally co-ordinated, sophisticated plots to decentralised and crude attacks. Individuals radicalised by hatred are prepared to inflict unimaginable violence on innocent civilians, as we saw only last month. This changing landscape presents significant challenges for our law enforcement agencies yet without adapting our approach, we leave ourselves vulnerable. The greatest power of this Bill lies in its ability to increase public and corporate awareness of the threats that we face. It mobilises all parts of society to respond to the ever-changing risks of terrorism, helping us become more resistant to attacks and more resilient as a nation.

I understand the concerns about whether the requirements of this Bill are proportionate. I too would not wish to see businesses burdened with unnecessary regulations and more red tape. However, the measures outlined are far from excessive. The duty created by this Bill is tiered, balancing the risk of a potential attack against the capacity of premises. Smaller venues expecting 200 to 799 attendees would be required to implement simple, practical steps to protect the public. Larger venues expecting over 800 attendees would be required to take more robust measures to prevent attacks. Manchester City Council has already demonstrated the feasibility of implementing the principles of Martyn’s law. Licensed businesses in the city have embraced these measures, and feedback indicates that they do not find them unduly burdensome when it comes to cost or time.

There has been debate about the threshold for the provisions of this Bill. The initial proposal, as we have heard, was a threshold of 100 attendees, but the Government have set it at 200, while some amendments have even sought to raise it to 300. My concern is that the higher the threshold, the less effective the Bill becomes. I would welcome the Minister’s explanation for the Government’s choice of 200 as opposed to 100, which was originally proposed.

The Bill represents such a vital step in addressing the persistent threat of terrorism. Its provisions are reasonable and proportionate, and its potential to save lives is immense—after all, is that not what we are here to do today? By supporting this legislation, we honour the memory of those lost and injured in the Manchester Arena bombing, ensuring that their legacy is one of action and progress. I am delighted to see such cross-party support.

It has taken all these survivors and families to get us where we are today. I would like us to recognise that they all have three things in common in their lives: fortitude, tenacity and sheer guts. They have the fortitude to stand no matter what, the tenacity to stick with it, and the guts to deal with whatever and whoever stands in front of them and puts up another barrier. This sums up the energy and the passion it takes for anybody to come to Parliament and say it as it is, for legislators to truly understand. This sums up Figen Murray and all other campaigners. The pain never leaves you; I know what it feels like. I am delighted to take part in this debate and honoured to speak about those who cannot be with us today.

Domestic Abuse: Victims and Survivors

Baroness Newlove Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Newlove (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Chisholm for this debate. It saddens me, though, that we only have three minutes to talk about it. If it was to do with EU law, we would have three days. I think that shows you. Are we really serious about tackling domestic abuse? I am going to keep mine short. I have lots of speechwriting from my team, but I think this should be a debate about the victims and the survivors.

I have met many, both in my role as Victims’ Commissioner and outside the role, and the one thing that everybody has said to me is that they do not want to go to court. They do not want to go through these processes that we talk about here today. They want somebody to listen to them. They want them to understand what they are going through. They want them to help them to get out of a horrible, chronic relationship. And they want to protect their children. We have wonderful organisations that work tirelessly to help these victims. They are bursting at the seams because, when they do go to court, we have court backlogs, as we are noting, and it could be years before they get anywhere.

The one thing that we cannot see is coercive controlling. Even though we send perpetrators to prison, that coercive controlling still goes on while they are in prison. We need to tackle that with better training and understanding and looking at it like a chronic, invisible illness—which, as I stand here today, I have, but you would not think so because I do not have a broken arm or leg. We need, as a society, to look at people, and the default button should not be, “Well, they go back”. They go back because they need to put a roof over their head for their children. They go back because they have no control of their finances. They go back because they are worn down by the very person who says they love them. And they go back because they know the consequences of what will happen.

In this House and in the other place, we talk about legislation. This is for the professionals and this is where we can safeguard—and I hope that agencies will get this into perspective. But, more importantly, we are missing a trick. This is not about legislation; this is about understanding a societal problem. It is understanding the language that we talk about and it is understanding that, when a victim goes to report domestic abuse or any crime, this is not the first time that they are suffering at the hands of somebody who will absolutely go on to brutally murder them.

I ask the Minister not to keep using the two words “lessons learned”. It is an insult to the victim and to the family and, more importantly, as we have just seen in the young girl who has brutally lost her life, there is going to be yet another inquiry—another one that sits on the shelf—when in fact there needs to be accountability, because we have enough legislation that should have protected that child. As a whole, we need to do better, quicker, to protect other young lives.

King’s Speech

Baroness Newlove Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Newlove (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the noble Lords, Lord Hanson and Lord Timpson. It was a great maiden speech from the noble Lord, Lord Timpson. The noble Lord, Lord Hanson, has yet to make his maiden speech but, coming from the other place, I know he will be a true professional.

This debate comes at a critical time for our criminal justice system. There is no hiding from the fact that there is a prison population crisis. I recognise that when our prisons are full there are serious consequences for the whole criminal justice system, especially the police and our courts. As Victims Commissioner, my focus is on the impact that this crisis will have on victims.

My concerns are twofold. Victim safety must never be compromised, and this crisis must not be allowed to further erode the victim’s confidence in our criminal justice system. Victim attrition from the justice process is already at a record high. I am reassured that changes to the release point in the standard determinate sentence will not apply to offenders convicted for a sexual offence, stalking, controlling and coercive behaviours, non-fatal strangulation or those who have received a sentence of more than four years for a violent crime.

However, these exclusions, as welcome as they are, have limitations: they cannot address every potential risk once released. This is why it is so important that no early release takes place before appropriate release plans have been put in place. That will enable the Probation Service to manage these offenders effectively and with confidence while they serve their sentence in the community. Before release, a conversation with the victim should take place, not only to tell them about the change in release date but to give them an opportunity to request protective licence conditions such as exclusion zones, no-contact conditions and the safeguard of electronic tagging, where it is needed.

I now turn to the King’s Speech. I was encouraged that victims were mentioned. Colleagues in this House worked tirelessly on the Victims and Prisoners Bill, now an Act. I believe that this piece of legislation can achieve a great deal, but it left me and other noble Lords with a sense of unfinished business, although I stayed here until the very end to make sure that it never fell off a cliff edge. I hope that the Government’s programme will have the scope to enable us to complete the work we have begun.

I now turn to victims of antisocial behaviour. I am pleased to see that in their manifesto the Government specifically pledged more support for this group of victims. During the passage of the Victims and Prisoners Bill, I called for the victims of persistent antisocial behaviour to be recognised as victims of crime and provided with their Victims’ Code rights. Many of these victims are not treated as victims of crime, because the agencies—from the police to the housing providers— choose to treat the matter as “low level” or as a neighbour dispute, so it is not pursued further. Victims are not informed of their statutory entitlements, such as to be referred to victim support services. However, we failed to convince. The new Government’s legislative programme gives me a chance to have another go. I remain resolute.

I move on to the Government’s commitment to reduce by half the level of violence against women and girls. As a mother of three daughters, it saddened me to listen to the news this week, but I will focus on one important issue. For far too long, many of these victims have faced intrusive scrutiny of their behaviour and personal history, and they become so disillusioned with the justice system that they walk away.

In the Victims and Prisoners Act we established legal safeguards that ensured police can access therapy records only in the most exceptional circumstances. I hope that the Government will move quickly to commence this important provision. However, we need to go further. Police routinely access other sensitive information—medical notes, social service records and education files—held by individuals or institutions other than the victim. These records can span decades and often contain not just facts but professional opinions potentially coloured by their biases about the victim. Victims are unaware that these records exist, let alone of their content and the potential impact on an investigation. Is it justice or their right to privacy that has to change?

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 includes safeguards against excessive requests for victim’s personal digital data. Since its implementation, practitioners have reported a significant decrease in these requests, demonstrating their effectiveness. We must have similar protections for third-party materials, and free legal advice.

In 19 days, it will be 17 years since I had to turn off my husband’s life-support machine. Gary is not a statistic, nor are the victims and survivors I have met over the years. Every statistic has a human face and represents a tragedy. As legislators, we owe it to them to try to rebalance our justice system.