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Footing the Bill: Juliet Morton on how Q-CAT has been lobbying parliament
‘Diving into the cold, cold water of the unfamiliar has been bracing.’
Our faith can be so uncomfortable. It can drive us to seek to act in areas we are not familiar with. Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture (Q-CAT) was compelled to act in new ways by the realisation that a Bill passing through Parliament would create grave injustices and endanger lives.This short account of what we did may be useful to other Friends as an example of how you might engage productively with policymakers.
Q-CAT and a number of other human rights and veterans’ charities are concerned by the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill. We do not believe it serves the interests of the military, civilians or justice. The Bill aims to give immunity from prosecution after a number of years to service personnel serving overseas for criminal acts they may have carried out, including torture. This undermines international law, accountability in government and military authorities, and processes of justice. It decreases security.
Here’s what we did about it.
Government departments
When we first heard about the government’s proposals for such a Bill, we wrote to MPs and relevant government departments: Defence, Justice and International Trade. Exchanges were cordial and instructive. A legal friend helped us to follow up on their answers. The Ministry of Justice suggested we submit our views to a government consultation on the proposals.
Responding to consultations
Around this time the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) was taking submissions for its seventh periodic review of the UK International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
It seemed essential that we add our voice to that of other charities responding to the government consultation and the UNCAT review. With no experience of making such submissions, we asked Friends House for advice. Thankfully, Grace Da Costa, Britain Yearly Meeting’s public affairs and advocacy manager, had the necessary skills and was very willing to give support with the drafting of both submissions by early January 2020. We continued to engage with the Ministry of Defence and the parliamentary Defence Committee on issues arising from both the consultation and previous UNCAT review.
House of Commons stages
The Bill was presented to parliament in the late spring of 2020 (see https://bills.parliament.uk). Bills usually start in the Commons. This is a good time to contact them as MPs have an interest in knowing their constituents’ views. You can find out more about how to effectively engage with your MP on websites like www.theyworkforyou.com, or www.quaker.org.uk/politics. Quakers and other members of the public wrote to their MPs expressing concern about the Bill.
The Bill was then considered in detail by the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) in August 2020. With advice from the political advisor to the shadow secretary of Defence, who sits on the JCHR, and continued support from Grace Da Costa, Q-CAT trustees drafted an outline of our major concerns. Other concerned charities and Q-CAT shared submissions so we all could be clear about the aspects each of us were focusing on.
The JCHR’s eventual report was withering, leaving no doubt as to the flawed nature of the Bill (https://tinyurl.com/JCHRreport). Flying in the face of tradition, the government decided not to allow MPs to see the Committee’s report before voting on the Bill in the final stages. This left MPs unaware of the many serious problems identified, including crucial points made by ex-government and ex-military personnel in their submissions to the JCHR. Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, announced he was commissioning a review of this ‘complex area’ which would report in nine months. This, however, did not halt the passage of the Bill, which passed its Commons stages with 345 MPs in favour and 260 against. Quakers in Britain issued its first public statement of concern about the Bill in September 2020.
House of Lords stages
In January 2021, as the Bill entered the House of Lords, we sent briefings to peers who would be speaking in the second reading and to those known to be supportive to Quaker concerns. We received a lot of positive feedback. Peers used our arguments during the debate and one said he was ‘particularly impressed and moved’ by our briefing.
During the Lords committee stage, we worked with other charities such as Freedom From Torture and Reprieve to brief peers on the amendments we were seeking to the Bill. We are hopeful that this collaboration will have a positive impact. We now await the report stage of the Bill to see which amendments will pass. We will be asking Friends to write to their MPs again when the Bill goes back to the Commons for consideration of Lords amendments.
In challenging this Bill, Q-CAT has found that diving into the cold, cold water of the unfamiliar has been bracing and has gifted us new understanding, potential new partnerships and wider possibilities for action. Consultation and co-operation with other charities is now more probable having worked alongside them on this Bill.
Friends House help was like having a support boat on hand. Grace Da Costa is willing to offer support and advice to other Friends wishing to influence politicians. Letters are worth writing to government departments as they are inevitably noted and logged. Responses can be bland or opaque, but we found that a dialogue is possible. Civil servants are meant to act impartially. The Ministry of Justice made us aware of consultations, even when they knew our views varied from the current government’s.
There are other resources to access when seeking to engage with those in power. The web yields clear information about democratic processes and how to participate. Individuals on parliamentary committees are open to offering advice when asked. MPs and peers need, and often welcome, information from the concerned public.
So Friends, do plunge in, it may be bracing, but it is worth it.
Juliet is clerk to Q-CAT trustees.
Comments
Excellent, detailed commentary, Thank you; but what an appalling statement of the morality of this Government. It is more important for them to push their badly composed legislation through by subterfuge than to govern creatively. “Flying in the face of tradition, the government decided not to allow MPs to see the Committee’s report before voting on the Bill in the final stages. This left MPs unaware of the many serious problems identified, including crucial points made by ex-government and ex-military personnel in their submissions to the JCHR”
By Peterelan on 10th April 2021 - 17:56
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