Crime and Security Bill (HL Bill 45 of 2009–10) The Crime and Security Bill is wide-ranging. It contains provisions to reduce the reporting requirements on the police when they stop and search individuals; to set out a statutory framework for the retention and destruction of biometric material, including DNA data; to provide the police with the power to issue “go” notices to alleged perpetrators of domestic violence; to extend injunctions for gang-related violence to 14-17 year-olds; to require courts to make parenting orders when a young person breaches an ASBO; to introduce a licensing scheme for wheel-clamping businesses; to create a new criminal offence of possessing a mobile phone in prison; to create a new offence of failing to take reasonable precautions to prevent a person under 18 from having unauthorised access to an air weapon; to compensate the victims of overseas terrorism; to enable licensing authorities to restrict the sale of alcohol between 3am and 6am; and to give the police new powers to search a person subject to a control order. The Bill has completed its passage through the House of Commons and is due for a second reading debate in the House of Lords on 29th March 2010. This House of Lords Library Note focuses on the debates on the retention and destruction of DNA data on the National DNA Database. It also gives brief details of the other parts of the Bill that were discussed at report stage in the Commons.
Crime and Security Bill (HL Bill 45 of 2009–10). LLN 2010/010 (124 KB , PDF)
Crime and Security Bill (HL Bill 45 of 2009–10). LLN 2010/010 (124 KB , PDF)
The Hares (Closed Season) Bill [HL] would create a closed season during which it would be an offence to intentionally or recklessly kill, injure or take any hare between 1 February to 30 September each year. It would also repeal the Hares Preservation Act 1892.
![Hares (Close Season) Bill [HL]: HL Bill 52 of 2024–25](https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/content/uploads/sites/2/2020/09/Agriculture-and-farming-568x426.png)
The UK co-founded and is a member of the Media Freedom Coalition, which advocates for media freedom, the safety of journalists, and holding those who harm journalists to account. More than 50 journalists have been killed every year since 2019, often with impunity. They can also be subject to detention and legal intimidation. The previous government worked with the UN and other multilateral organisations to promote media freedom, and the current government has said it will protect independent journalism.
In October 2024, a House of Lords committee published a post-legislative review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The committee argued that the legislation was no longer world-leading. It suggested developments worldwide had led to the UK falling behind internationally and that recent immigration legislation had limited the act’s support infrastructure for victims. It called on government policy to recognise the difference between migrants coming to the UK willingly and victims of trafficking.
