My Lords, in moving government Amendment 107A, I first thank sincerely all those in both Houses who have campaigned on this important issue, particularly the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, and all those who spoke in the debate in Committee in this House. I know that she wanted to be here this evening, but I am afraid the hour has prevented her doing so. It is right to put on record my thanks for the tireless work she has done in this area, and for the time she gave on a number of occasions to discuss this issue with me. The noble Lord, Lord Pannick, has also been extremely helpful on this point, and I thank them for joining me in putting their names to the amendment.
I made it clear in Committee that the Government supported the aims of the original amendment put down by the noble Baroness but considered that it was too broadly drawn and would capture conduct that ought not to be criminalised. In particular, I explained in a series of to-and-fro discussions with the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, that the issue of intention needed to be more carefully addressed.
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What I thought was an interesting and, indeed, constructive legal discussion in your Lordships’ House in Committee led—no doubt because of the subject matter rather than the inherent attraction of the legal topic of mens rea—to a short piece in the diary column in the Times that mused about my own holiday snaps; to my first mention on “Have I Got News for You”, which revealed that the panel’s grasp of the finer points of criminal law was sadly lacking; and to an article in the Guardian that opened by nominating me as 2021’s Most Embarrassing Politician, which your Lordships might think to be a rather crowded field, and concluded with the stirring cri-de-coeur “Free the breasts, abolish the barons”—although why the first should necessitate the second is not immediately apparent, at least to me.
It is therefore with some trepidation that I again venture into the field, but this time I am armed with a government amendment. The truth is that I am proud
to be moving this amendment, because although this might seem a topic of fun to some outside this House, it is not a matter for amusement at all. This amendment, which has been the subject of careful consideration, will support and protect parents and children. I hope that it will be supported in this House today as it has been publicly greeted with acclamation by campaigners in the other place, including Stella Creasy and Jeff Smith—I should mention them in particular for their work in this area—as well as organisations working to protect women from abuse.
This amendment would create new offences to criminalise recording images of, or operating equipment to observe, a person at a time when they are breastfeeding without that person’s consent or a reasonable belief that they consent. For the offences to be made out, the perpetrator must be acting for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification or of humiliating, alarming or distressing the victim.
Although, as I made clear in Committee, the Law Commission is currently reviewing the law around the non-consensual taking and sharing of intimate images, including whether photographs of partially covered breasts and breastfeeding should be considered intimate images, we believe that this amendment will ensure that parents are protected from non-consensual photography and can feel safe to breastfeed in public ahead of the publication of the Law Commission report in spring this year. Obviously, when the Law Commission reports, we will look at its report and the whole area of this law as a unit. For those reasons, I beg to move.