Thank
you for taking the time to use our campaign website, Safeonline.org.uk to
contact a peer and encourage them to support Baroness Howe’s amendment to the
government’s Consumer Rights Bill. Lady Howe’s amendment required all
ISPs and mobile phone operators to provide their customers a service free of
adult content unless they opted in to receive it and made provision for robust
age verification to guard against abuse of the system.
So many people
responded that we estimate that every peer received at least one email of
encouragement. Lady Howe was delighted with the level of support that she
had received and asked me to pass on her thanks.
Sadly
the amendment was not carried with 65 peers voting for it with 124 voting
against.
As the
Government did not support the amendment, we always knew that an early vote
would be crucial to success and, unfortunately, the debate went on into the
evening by which time many non-government peers had gone home.
It is
deeply frustrating that, at the end of the day this should come down to
something as capricious as timing rather than the quality of the arguments.
There were great contributions from Lord Cormack and Lord Framlingham who
both defied their Party whips and voted for the amendment.
Although
disappointing we should also take encouragement from the result. The
majority of Peers spoke in favour of the amendment and in her summing up Lady
Howe noted: “each time one puts pressure on the Government, it improves the
situation”
The
peers who voted for the amendment included Labour, Conservative, Liberal
Democrats and cross-benchers. Clearly this is an issue which transcends
party boundaries and shows the strength of feeling on this issue. You can
read the debate here,
beginning on page 35.
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