Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Fox (LD)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

Yes, I remember our previous exchange on this matter, and I have looked at the work done within the Council of Europe, the parliamentary assembly and its culture, media and sport committee. This is a cross-Europe issue. There are groups measuring attempts at SLAPPs across European jurisdictions. We will continue to look at how legislation is developed across Europe. We will keep an eye on this within the UK. The point that my noble friend makes is a good one.

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston (Con)]

My Lords, I refer the Minister to the letter from the SRA, which it sent me this week and I have published on X this morning, detailing why it has not taken action against the lawyers representing Yevgeny Prigozhin, who pursued the journalist Eliot Higgins for tweeting that he was a Russian mercenary and the leader of the Wagner Group. In that letter the SRA is clearer than it has ever been that, in its view, legislation is needed to prevent SLAPPs. Can the Minister please think again about the urgency of this matter? What with not moving on this, yesterday’s complacency on the Telegraph and the Government’s position on copyright, there needs to be a different kind of response from the Government on matters concerning the freedom of the press.

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for sending me a copy of that letter yesterday. The first point to make is that it is for the courts to decide whether a case is indeed a SLAPP. The second is that the case referred to in the SRA letter preceded the legislation that is now in place. The focus of the Government is to see how the new regulations will bed down before we consider new legislation.