Vol. 811 Tuesday No. 222 27 April 2021 PARLIAMENTARYDEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDEROFBUSINESS Questions Cycling: Bells ................................................................................................................2135 Transport: Zero Carbon Target ....................................................................................2138 Kalifa Review of UK Fintech ......................................................................................2142 Music Festivals: Covid-19-related Cancellations ..........................................................2145 Covid-19: Support for India Private Notice Question ................................................................................................2150 Ministerial Code Commons Urgent Question............................................................................................2155 Overseas Development Assistance: Budget Commons Urgent Question............................................................................................2159 Domestic Abuse Bill Commons Amendments and Reason ..............................................................................2163 Global Anti-corruption Sanctions Statement......................................................................................................................2194 Fire Safety Bill Commons Reason..........................................................................................................2205 Grand Committee Turkey: Free Trade Agreement Motion to Take Note................................................................................................GC 465 International Accounting Standards (Delegation of Functions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2021 Considered in Grand Committee ...............................................................................GC 487 Employment Rights Act 1996 (Protection from Detriment in Health and Safety Cases) (Amendment) Order 2021 Considered in Grand Committee ...............................................................................GC 501 Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (High-Risk Countries) Regulations 2021 Considered in Grand Committee ..............................................................................GC 513 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. No proofs of Daily Reports are provided. Corrections for the bound volume which Lords wish to suggest to the report of their speeches should be clearly indicated in a copy of the Daily Report, which, with the column numbers concerned shown on the front cover, should be sent to the Editor of Debates, House of Lords, within 14 days of the date of the Daily Report. This issue of the Official Report is also available on the Internet at https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2021-04-27 In Hybrid sittings, [V] after a Member’s name indicates that they contributed by video call. The following abbreviations are used to show a Member’s party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Ind UU Independent Ulster Unionist Lab Labour Lab Co-op Labour and Co-operative Party LD Liberal Democrat LD Ind Liberal Democrat Independent Non-afl Non-affiliated PC Plaid Cymru UKIP UK Independence Party UUP Ulster Unionist Party No party affiliation is given for Members serving the House in a formal capacity, the Lords spiritual, Members on leave of absence or Members who are otherwise disqualified from sitting in the House. © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2021, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 2135 Arrangement of Business [27 APRIL 2021] Cycling: Bells 2136 House of Lords Lord Touhig (Lab) [V]: My Lords, some time ago, I had a near-encounter with a cyclist. He did not have a Tuesday 27 April 2021 bell and I did not see him coming, but an accident was avoided because he shouted “ding ding”as he approached The House met in a hybrid proceeding. me. Like many colleagues, I have done much more walking during the pandemic, and had many close Noon encounters. While it is argued that cyclists should not rely unduly on bells as a means of avoiding hazards, in Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Rochester. almost every case it is the only warning that the pedestrian has. Surely all cyclists should be required to have bells on their bicycles and should not be allowed Arrangement of Business on the road without them. Announcement Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con): My Lords, the 12.06 pm Government are not about to mandate bells on bicycles. The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler): My Lords, the That would be disproportionate, and it is unlikely that Hybrid Sitting of the House will now begin. Some any enforcement would be a police priority. However, Members are here in the Chamber while others are cyclists must take responsibility for their actions. A participating remotely, but all Members will be treated little “ding ding” on a bell on a bridleway is perfectly equally. Oral Questions will now commence. Please fine, but if you are travelling in central London, it will can those asking supplementary questions keep them get you nowhere, and in those circumstances, a shout brief and confined to two points. I ask that Ministers’ is probably preferable. I am afraid that the Government answers are also brief. will not be mandating bells at the present time. Baroness Hoey (Non-Afl): My Lords, I welcome the Cycling: Bells huge increase in cycling, but millions of people will Question never get on a bicycle, and millions of pedestrians on pavements feel intimated and threatened by that small 12.07 pm minority of anti-social cyclists. Has the Minister given Asked by Lord Lexden any thought to how we can identify those anti-social cyclists who head off very speedily? Could they all Toask Her Majesty’sGovernment what assessment have something that shows who they are, so that they they have made of any hazards that arise when can be identified? cyclists fail to make use of bicycle bells. Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con): My Lords, the TheParliamentaryUnder-Secretaryof State,Department Government looked very closely at the issue of safety. for Transport (Baroness Vere of Norbiton) (Con): My In the cycling and walking safety review of 2018 we Lords, cyclists, like all road users, have a responsibility looked at licensing, but we concluded that the costs to behave in a safe and responsible manner. Rule 66 of would outweigh the benefits of getting more people the Highway Code recommends that bells are fitted on to a bike. However, I am sure the noble Baroness is and used as necessary, and all new bikes must be sold aware that it is an offence to cycle on the pavements, with a bell fitted. under Section 72 of the Highways Act 1835. Enforcement is an operational matter for local police forces. Lord Lexden (Con): My Lords, what can be done about the huge number of cyclists without bells, which Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con) [V]: My Lords, I declare does not lack aggressive and foul-mouthed elements? an interest as a runner clocking up 20 miles a week. I Some of them seem to prefer pavements to their can testify that cyclists can be a real danger to stand-up designated cycle lanes, having presumably discarded sportsmen, and very few of the MAMILs have bells. the bells which, as my noble friend has said, are They claim that they interfere with the aerodynamics, required by law when bicycles are first sold. Is this not which is really just vanity. Outside England, bells are completely irresponsible? required under the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic 1968, so why do we not have that requirement in Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con): My Lords, I am England as well? Also, will my noble friend the Minister going to try very hard not to make this a pro- and look at supporting a Bill to regulate pedicabs, which is anti-cycling Question, because there are many people going to fail in this Session? on our roads—pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders, motorcyclists and drivers of motorised vehicles—and Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con): I thank my noble we must ensure that each considers their impact on friend for his questions and congratulate him on his other road users. My noble friend is right that we must running. The Government take an interest in how do something. The core is education and training. In pedicabs will be regulated, and we will look favourably the Government’s cycling strategy, Gear Change: A Bold on any Bills that might come forward. I think I have Vision for Cycling and Walking, we said that every answered the question about mandating cycle bells, adult and child who wants it can be trained on how to but we have just closed a consultation on the Highway ride a bicycle safely. Code. We want to ensure that those who can cause the 2137 Cycling: Bells [LORDS] Transport: Zero Carbon Target 2138 [BARONESS VERE OF NORBITON] collision with a car or a pedestrian, a cyclist is likely to greatest harm have the greatest responsibility to reduce come off worse because he has further to fall. The danger or threat. In those circumstances, a cyclist problem is not with vulnerable cyclists but with motor would have the responsibility to a pedestrian or a vehicles and sometimes pedestrians who are not paying runner to ensure that they were safe and