Lord Lester to give evidence on defamation bill to new committee

Lord Lester is to give evidence later this month to a new joint committee of the Commons and Lords, appointed to carry out pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft defamation bill.

The Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill, which met for the first time this week, is made up of six MPs and six peers and is chaired by Lord Mawhinney.

It will take oral and written evidence on the draft bill before reporting its recommendations to parliament and the government by the end of July.

Last month, the government published a draft defamation bill which takes a tougher stance on 'libel tourism' and includes provisions for a single publication rule online. Under the single publication rule, action would not be able to be brought in relation to publication of the same material by the same publisher after a one year limitation period had passed.

Other measures include a new requirement that a statement must have caused, or is likely to cause, substantial harm in order for it to be defamatory.

Evidence will be heard by the joint committee on 27 April from Lord Lester, who drafted his own defamation bill last year. It was during his bill's second reading that the government announced it would be drawing up its own bill.

A full programme of oral evidence sessions will be announced soon.

The deadline for submissions, which the committee states should be "original and not copies of papers written for the government consultation or any other inquiry" is 10 June. It added that papers received by the end of May "are most likely to influence the work of the committee".

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