Lords division · 2 Feb 2021 · No. 4

Trade Bill

Lord Alton of Liverpool moved as an amendment to Motion C, at end to insert “and do propose Amendment 3B in lieu—After Clause 2, insert the following new Clause—“Agreements with states accused of committing genocide(1) The High Court of England and Wales, or the Court of Session in Scotland, or the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland, may make a preliminary determination that another signatory to a relevant agreement represents a state which has committed genocide, within the meaning of Article II and Article III of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, following an application to the Court from a person or group of persons belonging to a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, or an organisation representing such a group, which is alleged to have been the subject of that genocide.(2) “A relevant agreement” in subsection (1) is a bilateral trade agreement towards which the United Kingdom is negotiating or to which it is a signatory.(3) The Lord Chancellor must lay before both Houses of Parliament any such preliminary determination by the Court.(4) After the laying before Parliament of a preliminary determination under subsection (3) a Minister of the Crown must, after a reasonable period, make arrangements for a motion to be debated in each House of Parliament requiring the Government to set out its course of action relating to the relevant agreement in subsection (1).(5) This section applies to genocides which occur after this section comes into force, and to those considered by any Court in subsection (1) to have been ongoing at the time of its coming into force.(6) A Minister of the Crown may by regulations made by statutory instrument make provision for or in connection with an application and preliminary determination made pursuant to subsection (1).(7) Regulations under subsection (6) above may in particular—(a) specify the form, content, and criteria for applications;(b) make provision about the procedure to be followed in relation to applications;(c) make provision about the procedure and rules of evidence necessary for consideration of an application by the Court, allowing for contradictory representations to be made.(8) In making such regulations the Minister of the Crown must have regard to—(a) the experience gained in the operation of this section;(b) the object and intended purpose behind the operation of this section including—(i) the upholding of all undertakings in and international obligations arising from the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;(ii) provision of meaningful access to the Court by persons making applications specified in subsection (1) without hindrance from unreasonable provision made pursuant to subsection (7).(9) Regulations under subsection (6) may contain supplemental, incidental, consequential and transitional provision.(10) A statutory instrument containing regulations under subsection (6) is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.””The House divided:

The Contents have it

Majority 171

Contents: 359 Not Contents: 188

At a glance The Contents won by a margin of 171 votes. The Government's position was Not Content, and it lost.

How the parties voted

Contents

Labour	130
Crossbench	82
Liberal Democrat	77
Conservative	35
Non-affiliated	18
Bishops	9
Democratic Unionist Party	4
Green Party	2
Lord Speaker	1
Plaid Cymru	1

Not Contents

Conservative	157
Crossbench	17
Non-affiliated	14

The party breakdowns are our own analysis of the official voting records (recorded votes only; they do not describe the formal whip). How we work this out.

Peers attend divisions ad hoc, so there is no did-not-vote list. Tellers are counted in the Content and Not Content totals, unlike in the Commons.