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As the end of the current Parliamentary session approaches the Lords are asked to consider several major bills every week. This week Jenny and Natalie continue to work on the Nationality and Borders Bill, The Building Safety Bill and The Health and Care Bill, and the Commons consider the Police Bill again.

Meanwhile the Government continue to pass laws without any scrutiny by MPs or Peers, through the use of Secondary Instruments such as this amendment to the Environmental Protection Act which will open the door to the large scale growing of GMOs in the UK. Natalie has organised a challenge to this with a fatal motion to be debated on 14th March.

 

As countries across Europe throw open their homes to refugees from Ukraine, the UK government continues to propose legislation which will put up walls and nail shut doors.

Imagine people from Ukraine being subject to the new two tier refugee system - as the so called legitimate ways of escaping Putin’s violent invasion are cut off - and Ukrainian refugees have to use so called illegitimate ways of getting to the UK. The Nationality and Borders Bill harms those refugees. 

And if people do manage to get here from Ukraine or other countries, are they to be left homeless and begging on the streets because there is no recourse to public funds and they are banned from work? Professionals, teachers, nurses, skilled engineers and trades people with lifetimes of hard work behind them are all banned from contributing. It makes no sense. And when Ukrainians claim asylum do we lock up the women and children in detention centers if they are struggling to find the right paperwork?


Jenny said: "The Nationality and Borders should be setting out safe routes and establishing ways to get people to the UK safely and legally. At the moment, we do not have that because the Government are pulling up the drawbridge."

 

The government was defeated five times last night in the Lords. Five victories for humanity, common sense and the rule of law. This included:

  • giving refugees the right to work while asylum claims are processed

  • removing the Home Secretary's power to immediately deport whole groups of people with duel citizenship without appeal

  • deleting the two tier system that divides refugees into legitimate and illegal depending upon how they got to this country.

The Nationality and Borders Bill  leaves 6 million Britons who hold duel nationality with the threat of Priti Patel being able to take away their citizenship

That's why Natalie tabled an amendment to ensure that no one can have their citizenship taken away (unless they got it by fraud in the first place). It sets out how our citizenship should be: for life, and not at the government's pleasure.

Natalie said: "Clause 9" of the Nationality and Borders Bill is terrible. It allows the government to take away people's citizenship without telling them. But by putting it down, the government has highlighted the longstanding problem of two classes of citizenship: people who have another citizenship (usually immigrants and those of immigrant descent) can have their citizenship taken away, those who don't, can't. About 6 million people are second-class citizens."

 

Police Bill : Ping Pong


The amended version of the Police Bill was considered by the Commons on Monday evening; although the government cannot add back in the defeated amendments targeting protest -  because they added them after the bill left the Commons in its first progression through the Houses - they did overturn the amended late amendment and remove the other Lords amendments. So the ridiculous ban on noisy protests is back in the Bill as it returns to the Lords.

The work of Parliamentarians is documented on the 'They work for you' website: see Jenny's and Natalie's contributions

Parliamentary Bill stages

First reading is simply reading out the title of the Bill. No debate. Government Bills start in the Commons, Private Member's Bills can begin at either end.
Second reading is a general debate on the Bill, allowing members to air all the problems they can see in the Bill.
Committee Stage we put all our amendments to try to improve the Bill. All amendments are debated and then withdrawn without any votes.
Report Stage we bring back the amendments that withstood the scrutiny of Committee Stage and push them to a vote if we can gather enough support to make it worthwhile..
Third Reading is for tidying up the Bill but sometimes there are still battles.
Ping Pong is once the Bill has passed all these stages in both Commons and Lords, it "ping pongs" between both Houses until they can agree. The Government usually uses their majority in the Commons to strip out all the Lords’ amendments. Sometimes the Lords ask the Commons to "think again", but eventually the Lords defer to the will of the elected chamber.
Royal Assent happens once the Bill has been fully approved by both Houses of Parliament, it goes to the Monarch for her formal approval and becomes law. 
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House of Lords Green Group · House of Lords · London, Greater London SW1A 0PW · United Kingdom

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