Data (Use and Access) Bill [HL]

Baroness Bertin Excerpts

3rd reading
Wednesday 5th February 2025 Lords Chamber

In closing, I return to something that I said on Report—which is probably a breach of one of our pieces of guidance. We know that the march of technology and the feeling of anonymity and impunity afforded by the internet have conspired to make this problem epidemic. The amendments to which I have put my name and which have been championed with such energy and forensic advocacy by the noble Baroness, Lady Owen, and the noble Lords, Lord Clement-Jones and Lord Pannick, engage these challenges in a manner that I think is proportionate and just. It is for those reasons that they should stand part of this Bill as it becomes law.

[Baroness Bertin (Con)]

My Lords, I back 100% my noble friend Lady Owen’s amendments and pay tribute to the powerful contributions to this debate. I have spent the past year working on a pornography review, which I hope the Government will publish as soon as possible. I back these amendments 100%. This is an industry that is out of control and growing. There are so many victims—there are victims in the past and there will be many victims in the future. If these amendments are not backed, the Government will be falling short and failing those victims. I do not believe that this Government want to fall short; I have huge faith that they want to meet their targets on halving VAWG over the next few years. They will not meet that target, however, if they do not act bravely and take thorough, proper decisions on these kinds of crimes. We must back these amendments.

[Lord Sandhurst (Con)]

My Lords, I can be very short; there are three points. First, it must be right to include solicitation; it is integral to the success of this Bill, and it is necessary to do so. Secondly, to omit “reasonable excuse” is obviously right. It would be incompatible with the Bill to include it. Thirdly, it must be right to have imprisonment as a sentencing option in appropriate cases. What about someone who has done it before, particularly in respect of the same victim?