Prisoners: Voting Rights

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Thursday 16th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Buscombe]

My Lords, I say straightaway to the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, that this Government have an exemplary record on human rights and he will know that this is an exceptional case. With regard to Russia, there is no comparison between the track record of the UK and that of Russia in ensuring European convention rights for citizens. In 2015, the UK committed to a period of enhanced dialogue with the Committee of Ministers secretariat to discuss how best to address the judgment given the lack of appetite in our Parliament to enfranchise prisoners. The Government have fulfilled that commitment.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government have been in dialogue with Strasbourg for 12 years. Does the Minister agree that we give a very poor precedent—indeed, a welcome precedent—for Russia, Turkey and other serial defaulters, particularly when, under the margin of appreciation available and given the results of the parliamentary committee on this, several compromises are available?

[Baroness Buscombe]

My Lords, I am afraid I cannot agree with the noble Lord. A number of countries have argued that we should implement the judgment to ensure that the authority of the court and the power of the convention are upheld. However, we also know that a number of other countries—members of the Council of Europe—sympathise with our position. They recognise that, on the one hand, we want to respect the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, as we do in other cases, but, on the other, this parliamentary sovereignty is the essence of our democracy. We have no reason to suppose that our Parliament thinks any differently from when this whole issue was last debated in another place, whereby a Back-Bench Motion to enfranchise prisoners was resoundingly defeated by a margin of 234 to 22 on a free vote.