L

Lord Black of Brentwood (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 6 March 2025

Debate

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation

Contribution

My Lords, SLAPPs are an unacceptable infringement on free speech; their sole purpose is to empower the powerful and corrupt to silence journalists and bloggers and to shut down legitimate scrutiny. In opposition, the Prime Minister and the Government strongly backed legislation to end their continuing abuse, but now they have gone back on that commitment and said that changes to civil procedure rules will be enough. Is the Minister aware that free speech campaigners such as Article 19 and Transparency International, backed by studies from the universities of Birmingham and Leeds, have said that these rules will be wholly ineffective in stopping pernicious lawsuits and that what is needed is full-throated legislation? Rather than hiding behind piecemeal legal tweaks, will the Government look at this again, stick to their unequivocal promises and set out a timeline for the development of a robust anti-SLAPP Bill?

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