Council of Europe: Reykjavik Summit

Debate between Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and Lord Tomlinson

Tuesday 18th April 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My noble friend raises a very important point. In one of my earlier responses, I alluded to an Urgent Question which will be repeated in your Lordships’ House later this week, but she is right to raise the issue. We summoned the Russian ambassador yesterday, and our own ambassador attended the court proceedings and issued a joint statement with a number of key partners. We want to ensure that we have access. Vladimir Kara-Murza is, as my noble friend says, a dual citizen. Equally, we want Russia to abide by the conventions it signed up to, including the Vienna conventions and their accords that allow for consular access.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

My Lords, I think the whole House is grateful to the noble Lord for the very clear message that he gave as his personal commitment when he quoted the Prime Minister’s words from the other place concerning the European Convention on Human Rights. However, that message is not getting through to member states, other than this country perhaps, in the Council of Europe. Particularly as the Prime Minister is not, it appears, going to attend the Reykjavik summit next month, can we make sure that whoever leads the British delegation will give that clear commitment that the noble Lord has given, so that the lingering doubts among many states in the Council of Europe concerning our commitment to the European convention are eliminated and no longer persist?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

I assure the noble Lord of the best of British diplomacy in that respect.

Jammu and Kashmir: Human Rights Abuses

Debate between Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and Lord Tomlinson

Monday 23rd July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

Let me assure the noble Baroness that we have of course noted the concerns about Kashmir expressed in the report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and its recommendations, as the noble Baroness said, for the Governments of both India and Pakistan to consider. Therefore, we encourage both states to uphold human rights in line with their human rights obligations. In terms of any resolutions that come forward at the Human Rights Council, we will respond accordingly.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

My Lords—

Crime: Religiously Motivated Crime

Debate between Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and Lord Tomlinson

Thursday 21st April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

I totally agree with the noble and learned Lord’s sentiments.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that the Prime Minister in the House of Commons yesterday was getting dangerously close to encouraging race hatred by making allegations against Mr Sadiq Khan, the Labour candidate for Mayor of London, concerning his association with somebody who had been visiting Tooting to work for the Conservative Party and recruit members to it?

Railways: South East Flexible Ticketing Scheme

Debate between Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and Lord Tomlinson

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

I will write specifically on that issue to the noble Lord. I believe that the noble Lord was referring to the awards of franchises; it is true that we are working very closely to ensure that there is an open competition. However, I will write to him on his specific question.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

The Minister has declared to the House that he does not think that he would agree with anything said by the leader of the Opposition in the other place. Is he really saying that as a Minister in the Government he is declaring himself opposed to the referendum that will take place on our membership of the European Union?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My right honourable friends have made clear their position on the EU referendum; we are negotiating. I am a member of my right honourable friend the Prime Minister’s Government and stand with him. He is ably leading negotiations and it is in the interest of everyone, both in the other place and this House, to show full support for our Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Community Life

Debate between Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and Lord Tomlinson

Thursday 27th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My Lords, the Government are fully committed to removing unnecessary bureaucracy. Speaking specifically about DCLG, since 2010 it has enacted legislation which has, as I have already said, empowered citizens and local communities. The Localism Act 2011 is a good example. In January of this year, my right honourable friend the Prime Minister announced that the Government have indeed met the Red Tape Challenge target to find 3,000 regulations to scrap and improve. Already more than 800 of the reforms have been implemented.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

My Lords, will the noble Lord tell the House how the big society is doing these days? We have not heard very much about it for the past couple of years. Will he give us an update? If the big society is prospering, the noble Lord’s question is redundant.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

The big society—and society as a whole—is alive, well and kicking. We need only look around the country to see 5,000 community organisers trained in 2015; Community First; the Centre for Social Action; the Dementia Friends campaign; the Innovation in Giving Fund; the Citizen Service; and indeed the Big Society Awards, with more than 100 winners already announced. The big society is very much alive. Look around your local community and you will see it.

Probation Services: Outsourcing

Debate between Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and Lord Tomlinson

Thursday 21st March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

Again, my noble friend raises a very important issue. I am aware of the scheme with National Grid, which addresses prisons and reoffending. To put this into context, when I visited Peterborough, I saw something very effective for prisoners coming in. If prisoners have committed the crime they have to serve that time, but it is not about leaving them at the prison gate. It is about identifying what skills and needs they have and then, by the time they leave prison, ensuring that they become productive, constructive members of society. That is what Transforming Rehabilitation is all about.

[Lord Tomlinson]

The noble Lord gave an interesting response to my noble friend Lady Corston but he did not actually answer the question. The question was specifically about the circumstances in which women might be recalled for relatively minor offences in situations where they might have been exercising their duty as a parent or carer. Will that be the case or not?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

I fully understand and respect the sensitivity around the issue of female offending. Currently all probation trusts are required by NOMS Commissioning Intentions to make appropriate provision for women. I am also pleased to say that my honourable friend in another place, Helen Grant, the Minister who is looking at this issue, will be making an announcement in this regard. She has recently visited centres in Gloucester, Reading and London where this issue is being looked at sensitively. The announcements we will be making shortly as part of the consultation exercise will address many of the specific concerns that have been raised.

European Union Bill

Debate between Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and Lord Tomlinson

Tuesday 3rd May 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tomlinson]

My Lords, in some of the things that have been said so far on this amendment—an amendment to which I am opposed—there has been an implication that every application for accession has been from a poor country coming along with its begging bowl. Since we became a member, Sweden, Austria and Finland have all joined the Community; it has not been a magnet attracting just poor countries. We have had the incredible spectacle of almost every country in Europe wanting to join the European Union not on the basis of what they can put into it or get out of it—one thinks of the famous Thatcher question, “Can we get our money back?”—but because they see it as an important political structure and believe that they will be weakened if they are not part of it.

The other small point that I want to make is that there has been some rather derogatory insinuation about countries such as Turkey. I seem to recall that just over 50 years ago Turkey was one of the founder members of the Council of Europe, and it has played an active role as a member of the Council of Europe throughout our time as a member. So successful has its engagement with the Council of Europe been that at present the Committee of Ministers is chaired by Turkey—a position that we will be taking over later in the year. Turkey currently holds the presidency of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and has been elected by the membership covering every European country except Belarus, which has been excluded on the grounds of its incapacity to fulfil the requirements of democracy and, in particular, to abolish capital punishment. Turkey plays a very active, involved, respected and well regarded role, and it is rewarded in terms of the power and authority given to some of our participants. Therefore, I hope that in future we can absolve ourselves from making cheap and snide remarks about countries which are in fact our allies, not only in the Council of Europe but in NATO.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My Lords, I wish to make three basic points. First, the whole essence of the European Union Bill concerns the transfer of powers and competences. As has clearly been stated by noble Lords before, the amendment does not relate to a transfer of power or competence and so remains firmly outside the scope of the Bill. Secondly, as has been made clear, the amendment, which is on the subject of accession, does not dilute the importance of the British veto, so again in my view it should not be taken forward. Thirdly, I align myself with the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, on the question that you pose about accession. He gave Macedonia as an example but what if several countries were joining and, having knocked on doors, you found that two people liked one country and one did not like another? What kind of response would you get to that? Therefore, let us put this issue into context. The European Union Bill is important but the amendment should certainly not constitute a key part of it.