L

Lord Wills (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 12 October 2026

Debate

Public Office (Accountability) Bill

Contribution

I hope noble Lords will forgive me; I know we are running well over time, but I really want to pick up the Minister on this crucial point. There is a fundamental difference between what the Minister has just said already exists and what these amendments would achieve. They would put the Secretary of State on notice that, if the Independent Public Advocate, after consultations with the bereaved in the immediate aftermath, felt there was a need for investigation, if the Secretary of State did not agree with that, they would have to make an Oral Statement to the House of Commons, during which they could be questioned on why the Secretary of State thought the existing mechanisms were adequate and why what the Independent Public Advocate thought, from her connections with the families, was not. That is the point: it makes the Secretary of State accountable. At the moment, the existing provisions mean that they could just be ignored.

More from Lord Wills (Lab)

Other recent Hansard contributions by the same speaker.

About Hansard

Hansard is the official verbatim record of proceedings in the UK Parliament. Every word spoken in the Commons and Lords is recorded and published — this page is a single contribution from that record.