Operation Midland

Lord Bishop of Leeds Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, there will be a debate later today, if my noble friend would care to sit through the Committee stage of the Policing and Crime Bill. My noble friend and I do not disagree that there should be a presumption of anonymity, but it is important, in certain cases, for the police to be able to release names. The publication arrangements for the report are, as I have said, a matter for the commissioner to decide on.

[The Lord Bishop of Leeds]

My Lords, can the Minister comment on the criteria for deciding which names should be divulged and which should not? To use the language of victimhood, we are creating victims as well as defending victims.

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

Could the right reverend Prelate repeat the last bit of that question?

[The Lord Bishop of Leeds]

My point was that we are creating victims as well as defending them; we are creating new ones. What are the criteria—that was the essential question—for deciding when anonymity ought to be breached and names put out?