A busy week in the House of Lords: Bishop Rachel’s challenges to government

Last week, Bishop Rachel was the bishop on duty in the House of Lords, and spoke on six occasions on various topics. Full details are below:

Grok and Twitter/X: regulation of AIs

Following Ofcom’s ongoing investigation of the X (formerly Twitter) chatbot Grok, Bishop Rachel has asked the Government what it’s doing to progress regulation of AIs in general. She also challenged the government on the topic of Ofcom and its apparent effectiveness.

Contacting Iran

Bishop Rachel asked for support on behalf of Iranians in the UK, who are struggling to contact friends and family in Iran due to the protests. She also asked for the government’s stance on hospitality and welcome.

Aid NGO’s physical access to Gaza

Speaking in a debate on reductions in Overseas Development Assistance, Bishop Rachel spoke on behalf of NGOs which are facing considerable obstacles to providing aid and working in Gaza; “What more can be done to encourage the government of Israel to give international NGOs the access they need to the region?”.

Children’s Wellbeing

Speaking in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, Bishop Rachel supported an amendment related to physical punishment of children (but the amendment itself was asking the government to respond to a report from Wales of when they implemented a ban on smacking children). She said, “It’s music to my ears that these Parenting Support Workers in Wales have been instrumental in engaging with families, providing early preventative support to resolve those issues before they escalate to criminal proceedings.”