Have your say on the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill

Aims of the Bill

The Bill would introduce the necessary domestic legislation to enable the UK to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and accede to its two Protocols. The Convention entered into force in 1956 and has now been ratified by 127 states.

The UK signed the Convention in December 1954 and has been publicly committed to ratifying it since 2004.

In January 2008, the Labour Government published a draft Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill but no further progress was made on ratification.

The current Bill would:

• create offences to protect cultural property (as defined by the Convention) in the event of armed conflict
• create offences relating to the unauthorised use of the “Blue Shield” – the emblem used to identify cultural property protected under the Convention and its Protocols
• make it an offence to deal in cultural property illegally exported from occupied territory
• introduce immunity from seizure for cultural property which is being transported to, or through, the UK for safekeeping
  

The Bill was originally introduced in the House of Lords on 19 May 2016 where it received cross party support. However concerns were raised in a number of areas including:

• the maximum penalty of 30 years’ imprisonment for ancillary offences relating to cultural property
• the clause on immunity from seizure for cultural property in the UK
• the status of “embedded” military personnel (i.e. military personnel operating under the command of another country)
  

The Bill would extend to the whole of the UK.

Follow the progress of the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill [Lords]

The Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill was initially published in the House of Lords and completed its Parliamentary stages there on 13 September 2016. The Bill was presented to the House of Commons on 13 September 2016 and had its second reading debate on 31 October 2016.

• Catch up on Parliament News: MPs debate the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill [Lords]
• Bills before Parliament: Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill 2016-17 [Lords]
• Read Explanatory Notes: Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill 2016-17 [Lords]
  

This Bill has now been committed to a Public Bill Committee which will hold its first meeting on Tuesday 15 November. The Public Bill Committee is expected to finish and report the Bill to the House by Thursday 17 November. There will be no oral evidence sessions.

Guidance on submitting written evidence

Deadline for written evidence submissions

The Public Bill Committee is now able to receive written evidence. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration.

The Committee is expected to meet for the first time on Tuesday 15 November 2016; it will stop receiving written evidence at the end of the Committee stage on Thursday 17 November 2016. Please note that when the Committee reports it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can report earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Thursday 17 November 2016.

What should written evidence cover?

Your submission should address matters contained within the Bill and concentrate on issues where you have a special interest or expertise, and factual information of which you would like the Committee to be aware.

Your submission could most usefully:

• suggest amendments to the Bill with explanation; and
• (when available, probably from September) support or oppose amendments tabled or proposed to the Bill by others with explanation

It is helpful if the submission includes a brief introduction about you or your organisation. The submission should not have been previously published or circulated elsewhere. If you have any concerns about your submission, please contact the Scrutiny Unit (details below).

How should written evidence be submitted?

Your submission should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk. Please note that submissions sent to the Government department in charge of the Bill will not be treated as evidence to the Public Bill Committee. Submissions should be in the form of a Word document. A summary should be provided. Paragraphs should be numbered, but there should be no page numbering.

Essential statistics or further details can be added as annexes, which should also be numbered. To make publication easier, please avoid the use of coloured graphs, complex diagrams or pictures. As a guideline, submissions should not exceed 3,000 words.

Please include in the covering email the name, address, telephone number and email address of the person responsible for the submission. The submission should be dated.

What will happen to my evidence?

The written evidence will be circulated to all Committee Members to inform their consideration of the Bill.

Most submissions will also be published on the internet as soon as possible after the Committee has started sitting.

Those making a submission to a Bill Committee should note the following:

• Committees publish most of the written evidence they receive on the internet (where it will be accessible to search engines).
  If you do not wish your submission to be published, you must clearly say so and explain your reasons for not wishing its disclosure. The committee will take this into account in deciding whether to publish. If you wish to include private or confidential information in your submission to the committee, please contact the clerk of the committee to discuss this. The Scrutiny Unit (details below) will be able to provide you with contact details for the clerk.
• A Committee is not obliged to accept your submission as evidence, nor to publish any or all of the submission even if it has been accepted as evidence. This may occur where a submission is very long or contains material to which it is inappropriate to give parliamentary privilege (see Guide for Witnesses for further information on parliamentary privilege).
• Material already published elsewhere should not form the basis of a submission, but may be referred to within a submission, in which case it should be clearly referenced, preferably with a hyperlink.
• You should be careful not to comment on matters currently before a court of law, or matters in respect of which court proceedings are imminent. If you anticipate such issues arising, you should discuss with the clerk of the committee how this might affect your submission.
• Once submitted, no public use should be made of any submission prepared specifically for the committee unless you have first obtained permission from the clerk of the committee. If you are given permission by the committee to publish your evidence separately, you should be aware that you will be legally responsible for its content.
• Evidence which is accepted by the Committee may be published online at any stage; when it is so published it becomes subject to parliamentary copyright and is protected by parliamentary privilege.
• Once you have received acknowledgement that the evidence has been published you may publicise or publish your evidence yourself. In doing so you must indicate that it was prepared for the Committee, and you should be aware that your publication or re-publication of your evidence may not be protected by parliamentary privilege.
• Public Bill Committees do not investigate individual cases of complaint or allegations of maladministration.
  

Data protection

• The personal information you supply will be processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 for the purposes of attributing the evidence you submit and contacting you as necessary in connection with its processing.
• The Clerk of the House of Commons is the data controller for the purposes of the Act.
• If you have any queries or concerns about the collection and use of this information please advise the committee team providing your full contact details.
  

Scrutiny Unit contact details
Email: scrutiny@parliament.uk
Telephone: 020 7219 8387
Address: Ian Hook
Senior Executive Officer
Scrutiny Unit
House of Commons
London SW1A OAA