Data (Use and Access) Bill [HL]

Lord Russell of Liverpool Excerpts

3rd reading
Wednesday 5th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)]

My Lords, the little exchange we have just had, which was most welcome, arose because it became clear in Committee that there were meetings of minds but not meetings of words in what had been presented there. I am pleased to join the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, in congratulating the department, including the Minister and the Bill team, on listening to the House. When the House gets behind a theme or topic and expresses it across all sides, it is worth listening to what is being said and thinking again about what was originally proposed, so that what comes out in the end is for the good of all.

It is always a bit unnerving to be namechecked in somebody else’s speech, and I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, for picking up the tech group, as she calls it, which has been following this and other Bills for the past five or six years. It has got together on many occasions to improve what we have seen before us, and I hope that the House recognises that. It is also important to recognise that when we speak as a House, we have a power that is worth engaging with, as we have shown on this occasion. I am grateful to the Minister for recognising that in his words at the Dispatch Box.

[Lord Russell of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, I rise briefly to congratulate the Minister and the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, on the amazing work she has done. Furthermore, I appeal to the Government and all the different departments that may be involved in bringing before Parliament any legislation that in any way, shape or form involves children. We have repeatedly had to deal with Bills that have arrived in this House where it is quite clear that the needs and vulnerabilities of children are not being recognised right from the beginning in the way the legislation is put together. We have to pull it apart in this House and put it back together, because it has not been thought of properly in the first place.

I appeal to the Minister to ensure that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. We need to learn the lessons of the battles that we have had to fight in recent years with a variety of Bills—largely successfully, mainly thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron. We do not want to keep on repeating those battles. We need to learn and do better.

[Lord Clement-Jones (LD)]

My Lords, it is a privilege to be part of the tech team and a pleasure to welcome a government amendment for a change. Although some of us might quibble with the rather convoluted paragraph 4, we should not stand on ceremony in that respect. I pay huge tribute to the tenacity of the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, throughout a series of Bills, not just this one. Our motivation in pressing for this kind of amendment has been the safety of children, whether with the Online Safety Act or this Bill. This amendment takes the Bill a step further but, as the noble Baroness says, we will remain on the case. We look forward to engaging with the ICO on this as the Bill is implemented.

I echo the noble Baroness’s thanks to the Minister and the Government for putting forward the CSEA offence. As the noble Baroness said, that had its origin in this Bill but will now be in the crime and policing Bill. I thank the Government for taking that forward. Also, it is very nice to see the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, back in her place.

Non-Consensual Sexually Explicit Images and Videos (Offences) Bill [HL]

Lord Russell of Liverpool Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 13th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Russell of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, I also applaud the noble Baroness, Lady Owen, for the way she presented the Bill, and for the enormous amount of hard work and help she has received. I want also to repeat what I said last week, which is to apologise on behalf of the male gender; I think we have a lot to answer for. We are the problem. We are not the victims, and we need to recognise that.

My aim is very simple, like that of everybody speaking today: I cannot overstress how urgent the need is to act. This problem is growing exponentially, and every day we wait, potentially thousands more women, and then tens of thousands, will be affected. Waiting is simply not an option.

An organisation called the Alliance for Universal Digital Rights has done some specific research into the far-reaching impacts of what we are talking about and the list is not nice: trauma; mental health, self-esteem and body image issues; social isolation; social and academic impact; impact on academic performance; online harassment; permanent digital record; strain on family relationships; cultural and community stigma; repetition of abuse; and lifelong vulnerability.

I have a daughter-in-law who is a South Korean citizen—in fact, she will be there with my son and new granddaughter for Christmas. South Korea is the country which has the worst epidemic of online AI-produced porn in the world. Between January and August this year, 781 victims asked for help from an organisation there called the Advocacy Center for Online Sexual Abuse Victims, of whom 288 were minors. South Korea has a unicameral assembly, and not a bicameral one, so maybe it can get things done slightly more quickly—without perhaps needing to resort to martial law. However, on 14 November, in a plenary session of the South Korean Parliament, all 281 MPs present approved the application of the law to criminalise what we are talking about and to bring in a series of measures to back that up and to aid enforcement. We really should do the same.