Russian Shadow Fleet Vessel Leruo
Debate between Lord Wood of Anfield and Baroness Neville-Rolfe(5 days, 20 hours ago)
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Lord Wood of Anfield (Lab)
My noble friend raises an important point about the supply of these often substandard vessels—as the noble Baroness said earlier—which will be tomorrow’s shadow fleet. We are doing a lot of work on that, and on co-operating with allies and third-party countries to try to assess that. Noble Lords will excuse me if I do not go into details about what that is, but my noble friend is exactly right that this is a forward-thinking way to act, rather than just responding to the day-to-day challenge of trying to tackle this long-term problem.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)
My Lords, the Government have rejected my amendments to strengthen penalties for tampering with critical undersea cables, whether by Russian shadow boats or by other operators, so I was very pleased to see the announcement by Ian Murray last week promising such action. My question is: when will this actually happen?
Lord Wood of Anfield (Lab)
If I were in charge of parliamentary timetables, I would be able to give the noble Baroness an exact answer; whether I would is another question, but I could give her an exact answer. This is a priority, as Ian said in his Statement. It is a priority not just because the law needs updating but because of the nature of the threat, as the noble Lord raised earlier. I am happy to provide more details on timing, or my colleague will, when more details emerge.
Press Regulation
Debate between Lord Wood of Anfield and Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My Lords, I have great sympathy with the noble Lord’s point. The single most important point is freedom of the press, as he says, and I am glad that we have found an independent, self-regulatory system which is now starting to deliver.
Lord Wood of Anfield (Lab)
My Lords, Section 40—the costs protection clause—was part of the Crime and Courts Act that was passed overwhelmingly in the Commons and here. Is the Minister saying that the Government are now revisiting the wisdom of Section 40?
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
As the Secretary of State made clear in a speech before Christmas, he is reflecting on whether now is the time to bring in that provision. The noble Lord is right: it sits on the statute book—there is no suggestion of doing anything about that—but we are reflecting on when to commence it.