This In Focus provides a briefing on the background and current status of the Wilson Doctrine, which concerns the interception of parliamentarians’ communications.
Interception of Communications: The Wilson Doctrine (90 KB , PDF)
In 1966, the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, made a statement in the House of Commons declaring that MPs telephone calls would not be intercepted. He also said that if this policy were to change he would tell the House about it, when it was compatible with national security to do so. Since that time, many governments have stated that they continue to abide by the Wilson Doctrine, as the statement became known, which was also extended in 1997 by then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to other forms of communication. This In Focus note examines the Wilson Doctrine and the findings of an Investigatory Powers Tribunal in October 2015, which considered its current application.
Interception of Communications: The Wilson Doctrine (90 KB , PDF)
This bill aims to make it illegal to create or solicit sexually explicit or intimate images without the consent of the people in them. This would include deepfake content, where photos or video are digitally manipulated to make a person appear to be in an intimate situation. The government has said that banning the creation of non-consensual explicit deepfake content is a priority.
![Non-Consensual Sexually Explicit Images and Videos (Offences) Bill [HL]: HL Bill 26 of 2024–25](https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/Security-VIGs-568x426.jpg)
Under the provisions of the House of Lords Act 1999, 92 ‘excepted’ hereditary peers can sit in the House of Lords. The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill would remove this exemption and also abolish the jurisdiction of the House of Lords in hereditary peerage claims.
The House of Lords European Affairs Committee welcomed the EU and UK response to the war in Ukraine “in general terms”. In its January 2024 report, the committee said some areas of UK-EU cooperation had been broadly effective. The committee said the report’s aim was to consider a longer-term approach and make recommendations to strengthen the UK-EU response. It called for more formal arrangements in several security and foreign policy areas.
