Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and International Committee of the Red Cross (Status) Bill

Key Points

• - Establishes the status, privileges and immunities of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (UK Branch) and the International Committee of the Red Cross in UK law.
• - Introduces a confidential-information exemption so that certain information shared by the ICRC with the UK government can be exempt from disclosure requirements.
• - The exemption can be limited by exceptions to be set out in the accompanying Order (i.e., it’s not unconditional).
• - Uses Orders in Council to implement these provisions (covering sections 1 and 2 of the Bill) and sets out processing steps for those orders.
• - In the Commons, two amendments to strengthen the confidentiality exemption were agreed; two other proposed oversight measures (consultation before laying draft orders and rapid laying of orders) were not pursued in committee.

Progress

The bill has completed its Commons passage (including a money resolution and committee stage amendments) and is now in the Lords, currently at the 2nd reading stage. Further Lords scrutiny and potential amendments are still to come.