House of Lords Podcast: Lord Speaker's Corner

Baroness Butler-Sloss, the highest-ranking female judge in England and Wales as President of the High Court’s Family Division from 1999-2005, speaks to Lord McFall of Alcluith about her career and warns of moving away from parliamentary scrutiny in draft laws before the House.

Baroness Butler-Sloss also speaks about her long legal career, her success in breaking through the ‘glass ceiling’ holding back women lawyers, her report on the Cleveland child abuse scandal and representation of different faith groups in the Lords.

• Find out more about the series, including a video version of the episode

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Watch leading human rights lawyer, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, discuss human rights, social media and access to justice with Lord McFall of Alcluith in the latest episode of Lord Speaker's Corner.

In this new episode, campaigning barrister Helena Kennedy KC talks about her early career, plus work on international cases of human rights abuses, such as the mistreatment of Uighurs, Russia’s kidnap of Ukrainian children and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. She also explains her work in the House of Lords to contribute to and improve the law.

Find out more about the series, including a longer podcast version of the interview https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2023/february-2023/lord-speakers-corner/

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This month we speak to chairs of two new Lords committees looking into the use of artificial intelligence in weapons systems and the future of the horticultural sector. Plus, Lord Bird discusses his upbringing and how he campaigns in the House of Lords for a new way to deal with the problem of poverty.

‘There are things that we wish we'd never invented like nuclear weapons, like landmines, but they've been invented... autonomous weapons systems are potentially threatening, but also a big challenge in terms of international agreement and regulation.’

First up, we speak to Lord Lisvane, Chair of the AI in Weapons Systems Committee, about the effect of digital technologies on defence and the ethics of using automated weapons systems.

'It’s hundreds of thousands of jobs, it’s billions in turnover. It’s a really important sector but the problem of course as a sector is because it's so wide, there's no one overarching body that says this is important.’

Then we speak to Lord Redesdale, Chair of the Horticultural Sector Committee, about the future of food production and the impact of climate change on the industry.

‘I came into the House of Lords to dismantle poverty.’

We also hear from crossbench member, Lord Bird, about his work to tackle homelessness and bring about social change.

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From making movies for Stephen Spielberg to ground-breaking protections for young people online, Beeban Kidron - Baroness Kidron - talks to Lord McFall of Alcluith about her wide-ranging work as a filmmaker and campaigner.

In this new interview, Baroness Kidron reveals what inspired her to become a filmmaker and her experiences making television and films including Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar.

'When the data bill came into the Lords, I put forward an amendment that created a data protection regime for children… And when it came into force, we saw the biggest changes in social media that we've seen in two decades, since it's been a thing in our lives… We are currently working in seven different countries and I believe that by the end of the legislative season, there will be five more states who have passed age-appropriate design codes in their own system. And that is one code introduced in the UK, in the House of Lords.’

Baroness Kidron also discusses the Online Safety Bill and what she thinks should come next for protecting young people.

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Nicky Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Cotes, has been a member of the government in both Houses of Parliament as well as serving as a backbencher, has chaired the Lords Fraud Act 2006 and Digital Fraud Committee and most recently led the external UK Commission on Covid Commemoration.

In this wide-ranging interview, Baroness Morgan explains what inspired her to get into politics, who asks the hardest questions to ministers, and explains her current focus, including on convincing government to make changes to legislation.

'I put an amendment down through the Domestic Violence Bill, which was about intimate image abuse. And that was passed with the support of, we work with ministers and the support of the House, that was important. Now I'm working on the Online Safety Bill to put down various amendments including one in relation to violence against women and girls. We want the regulator Ofcom to have a specific code of practice on that. And I'm also working with fellow peers from the fraud inquiry that I chaired last year on an amendment to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, which we're also debating at the moment.'

Find out more and see videos from the Lord Speaker's Corner series.

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How should the curriculum for 11-16 year olds be reformed and should GCSEs remain?

How can health services and community care be work better together?

Hear from members on these topics and more in the latest episode of the House of Lords Podcast. First up we speak to the Senior Deputy Speaker, Lord Gardiner of Kimble, about how committees function in the House of Lords and his experiences as both a minister and in his current role.

Next we speak to Baroness Pitkeathley, Chair of the new Lords committee investigating the integration of primary and community care. She explains what the challenge is, why the committee is looking into it now and what they hope to find out.

Then we speak to Lord Baker of Dorking. Lord Baker introduced the National Curriculum in 1989 when he was Secretary of State for Education. More recently he helped proposed a new Lords committee to look into the curriculum now and how it should be changed for 11-16 year olds.

Find out more about the Education for 11–16 Year Olds Committee

Find out more about the Integration of Primary and Community Care Committee

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‘In the House of Commons there's a culture of assertion. Government knows it'll normally get its way. In the House of Lords, it's a culture of justification. So government's got to persuade the rest of the House that what it wants to achieve it is desirable. So ministers have to engage. They can't simply rely on their own side to get a measure through.’

In this third episode of Lord Speaker's Corner, Lord McFall of Alcluith speaks to constitutional expert and Professor of Government at the University of Hull, Lord Norton of Louth. They discuss the importance of good lawmaking, why everyone should care about secondary legislation and the complementary roles of the House of Lords and House of Commons.

Find out more about the series, including a transcript of the interview https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2023/february-2023/lord-speakers-corner/

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‘One of the problems I had growing up as a young person in Northern Ireland when things were breaking down into violence again was... I was very troubled by the violence. I thought we must find some kind of way of living together. But the other thing was, I wanted to understand why.’

Welcome to the second episode of our Lord Speaker's Corner series. In this episode, the Lord Speaker is joined by psychiatrist, former speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and leader of the Alliance Party, Lord Alderdice as he discusses his involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process and his current work on international conflict and peace building.

Find out more about the series or watch a video of the interview

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Introducing a special series from the House of Lords: Lord Speaker's Corner. Over five episodes, Lord McFall of Alcluith will speak to members of the Lords about what drives them and what they hope to achieve in the House. In this first episode, the Lord Speaker sits down with Lord Dubs:

‘I think it's possible in the House of Lords to achieve things. And there's no point in being here unless one sets out to do that.’

Speaking shortly after Lord Dubs’ 90th birthday, the Lord Speaker discusses Lord Dubs’ experience in the Kindertransport as a child refugee and what continues to drive his work. They also discuss their shared experiences in Northern Ireland, and convincing the government to change legislation.

Find out more about the series including videos of the interviews.

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This month we speak to two members who have been leading investigations into improving adult social care and how the government has incompletely implemented the Children and Families Act.

‘We cannot keep asking families and friends to step up and take more and more responsibility for the adult social care services, while denying them some basic rights in terms of fair benefits and fair access to work.’

First, we speak to Baroness Andrews, who has been chairing the Lords Adult Social Care Committee. The committee's recent report, titled 'a gloriously normal life' has just been published. It makes several recommendations on what the government needs to do to improve social care. Listen to Baroness Andrew's interview to find out what the committee found as it spoke to people with lived experience of caring or care, and what the committee now wants the government to do.

‘What we heard from carers was the privilege of caring and how much they got out of it, how much they'd learned, for example, from growing up alongside a disabled child or how much they had learned from seeing their parent become a slightly different person from the one that they had been brought up with. It was a positive experience in terms of love and duty for so many, but most had never had a choice, and what we looked at as a consequence of that is what is going to happen in the future when there will be two million people in the next decade aging without children.’

·      Find out more from the Adult Social Care Committee

‘Sadly, we found that, due mainly to a lack of real focus on implementation and monitoring the implementation of the Act, it's really been a missed opportunity. And so many of the reforms as envisaged, just haven't taken place or haven't had the desired impact.’

Then we speak to Baroness Tyler of Enfield. Baroness Tyler has chaired the Lords committee investigating the government's implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014. In this interview, Baroness Tyler explains how a lack of scrutiny has meant the Act has failed to achieve its desired purpose and what the government can do to fix it.

‘We feel it's been a real missed opportunity to improve help, support and protection, particularly for vulnerable children and their parents.’

·      Find out more from the Children and Families Act Committee

Interested in hearing more about Parliament’s committees? Listen to the House of Commons Committee Corridor podcast. Visit parliament.uk or search wherever you get your podcasts.

Hear more from the House of Lords, including how Hansard works, why members put forward their own draft laws, women in Parliament and more.

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