Public Bodies: Israel Boycotts

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Thursday 25th February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con)]

My Lords, I think that the House wishes to hear from my noble friend Lady Eaton.

[Baroness Eaton]

Thank you. Three-quarters of Palestinian exports are destined for Israel and Israeli goods account for two-thirds of the West Bank’s imports. Does the Minister agree that a boycott of West Bank goods would be detrimental to the Palestinian economy?

Kids Company

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Morris of Handsworth]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Conservative Benches, and I am sure the House wants to hear from my noble friend Lord Tugendhat. I think we should go then to the noble Lord, Lord Morris, who has been very patient.

[Lord Tugendhat]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that in the corporate sector, rotation is the normal rule. It is very rare for non-executive directors to stay for more than three terms of three years. I read in the press that the chairman of the trustees of Kids Company has been in office for some 18 years. I do not know whether other trustees have been in office for an equally long time. Does the Minister agree that the lack of rotation is perhaps one of the causes of the difficulties that have occurred and that bringing new blood on to boards of directors or trustee boards is one safeguard against the sorts of problems that have arisen on this occasion?

Chilcot Inquiry

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Higgins (Con)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con)]

I am sorry, but the House is calling for the next question, so I think we should move on.

Defence Review

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Wednesday 25th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con)]

My Lords, as the noble Lords are not giving way to each other and the House was calling for my noble friend Lord Spicer, we will start with him.

Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tyler (LD)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con)]

My Lords, we have plenty of time. When two noble Lords stand up, perhaps one of them could be courteous to the other and decide to give way.

[Lord Cormack]

My Lords, I am most grateful to my noble friend Lord Tyler. As one who fought all the elections to which my noble friend the Minister referred, will he accept that those of us with that sort of experience have evaluated? We do not need to wait until 2020. This is a disservice to the constitution and the sooner it is consigned to the legislative rubbish tip the better.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My Lords, the noble Lord knows that we follow several conventions. We have had one already, which is about giving way to each other. There is another about the sides taking turns as we go around the House. We have just heard from the Labour Front Bench, so it is now the right time to hear from the noble Lord, Lord Tyler.

CIA: Torture

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Thomas of Gresford (LD)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston)]

The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, has been very patient. We will allow him to ask his question and then we should have time for at least one more noble Lord.

[Lord Campbell-Savours]

My Lords, does this difficult question not take us back to the problem that stands at the heart of the operation of the Intelligence and Security Committee? A witness before that committee who does not tell the truth cannot be held in contempt of Parliament because that committee, while it is described as a committee of Parliament, is not a full Select Committee and does not enjoy parliamentary privileges.

Scottish Referendum

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister mentioned that disillusionment with London and Westminster in particular is a problem that has been thrown up by the referendum and in more recent polls, so why are the Government bent upon having a government Cabinet committee of all-white, all-male privy counsellors as a way of taking devolution forward?

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston)]

I am on it.

[Baroness Royall of Blaisdon]

I beg noble Lords’ pardon. Clearly, there is going to be one woman on the committee, which is fantastic; nevertheless, it is a London-based committee. Why can we not now have an agreement in principle from the Government on a constitutional convention to take these things forward rather than the piecemeal way in which the Government are doing things at present?

Voluntary Sector and Social Enterprise

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Thursday 21st June 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prescott]

I take advice and I only take the advice of the advice.

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

I am sorry to interrupt the noble Lord but this is a time-limited debate. As it makes clear on the Order Paper, Back-Bench contributions are limited to six minutes.

[Lord Prescott]

I apologise. I took advice; obviously I got the wrong advice, but I will not exploit that situation. This whole business now means that a massive pool of cheap labour is going to be exploited, and now G4S even wants to buy the police and replace them with this kind of labour. We had better start looking at what is happening with the exploitation of people. I hope we can have a public debate about it. We have started it thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, and I am obliged to her, but I would like to get into the details of the issue perhaps when there are fewer people here and I can have a longer time to develop the argument.