Minister says SLAPPs action 'urgent' – but refuses to commit

The government this week declined to commit to a timetable for legislation to tackle abusive litigation against the media and public interest groups – despite accepting the ‘urgent need’ for such a measure.

In his first appearance as justice spokesman in the House of Lords, Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (the former hereditary peer Lord Ponsonby) said the government had supported ‘the principle’ behind the last government’s bill to tackle so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs). The measure was lost with the dissolution of parliament and not revived in the Labour government’s first legislative programme.

Rather, the government is now ‘considering options’, Ponsonby said in reply to a question from Baroness Stowell of Beeston (former BBC executive Tina Stowell). Describing the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 as ‘a positive and significant step forward in tackling SLAPPs relating to economic crime’, he said the government is ‘carefully considering options to tackle SLAPPs comprehensively’. He assured Stowell that the government is ‘taking the matter very seriously and establishing working parties, working at pace to try to address this issue’.

However, he continued, any legislation also needs to protect access to justice for legitimate claims. ‘There were live discussions with important stakeholders – for example, the Law Society – at the time of the [previous bill]. We have every intention of continuing those discussions.’

A former Conservative justice minister, Lord Faulks (Edward Faulks KC), spoke of the need for ‘really muscular legislation’. He reminded Ponsonby that the new foreign secretary, David Lammy MP, had condemned SLAPPs as ‘stifling effectively not just the rule of law and freedom of speech, but particularly going to journalists doing their job’.

Defamation expert Lord Garnier (Edward Garnier KC) proposed putting the matter before the Law Commission ‘so that we can generate rather more light than heat’.

Ponsonby said he could not commit to a standalone anti-SLAPP bill ‘but there is nevertheless an urgent need for legislation’. Options include engaging the Law Commission, he said.