Baroness Manningham-Buller (CB)

My Lords, I beg to move that the report of the Conduct Committee, The Conduct of Lord Ranger of Northwood, be agreed to. I regret coming to the House so early in the new Parliament and, indeed, delaying the start of the substantive debate on His Majesty’s gracious Speech. That said, there was agreement across the usual channels that the House should consider this Motion as soon as possible. It relates to a report published by the Conduct Committee on 17 May. At the time of publication, the plan was to bring the report to the House in early June. The Dissolution intervened, and the alternative to taking the report now would be to wait until the autumn. Such a drawn-out process would not be fair to either the noble Lord, Lord Ranger of Northwood, or the two complainants. In brief, the report relates to an incident of bullying and harassment which took place in January in the Strangers’ Bar in the House of Commons. I shall not rehearse the details; these are all set out in the report and not disputed by the noble Lord, Lord Ranger, but there is no question that this was a serious case of bullying behaviour, fuelled by alcohol, which has had a serious effect on the two young women who were its victims. Taking these factors into account, your Lordships’ Conduct Committee agreed unanimously that the sanction originally recommended by the Commissioner for Standards of a one-week suspension failed to do justice to the seriousness of the offence. We therefore recommend a three-week suspension. We have also recommended that the noble Lord, Lord Ranger, be denied access to bars in the House of Lords and the service of alcohol for a period of 12 months. If this report is agreed today, the Commons authorities will be invited to consider whether to impose a similar measure in facilities administered by that House. I conclude by acknowledging that, given the recess dates that have just been announced by the Government Chief Whip, the final week of the three-week suspension will fall in the Summer Recess. This is not ideal, but we are unlikely to have three clear sitting weeks from now until October and, as I have said, waiting another three months would not be fair to any of the parties in this case. I beg to move.