The Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws LT KC
Labour
Member of the House of Lords
F
Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws's full title is The Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws LT KC. Her name is Helena Ann Kennedy, and she is a current member of the House of Lords.
Allowance claims · 2026
Data not yet released for 2026 — the Lords Finance Office publishes monthly CSVs ~6-8 weeks after month-end.
Lords votes · 2026
162 divisions
1 Content(0.6%)
34 Not-Content(21.0%)
127 didn't vote(78.4%)
2026-04-23
Not-Content
152–207
Not-Content
2026-04-13
Not-Content
69–332
Not-Content
2026-03-05
Not-Content
193–143
Content
2026-03-05
Not-Content
194–140
Content
2026-03-05
Not-Content
198–139
Content
2026-03-05
Not-Content
208–142
Content
2026-03-05
Not-Content
214–142
Content
2026-01-12
Not-Content
201–169
Content
2026-01-05
Not-Content
132–124
Content
Source: lordsvotes-api.parliament.uk. "Result" shows the headline
Content vs Not-Content tally (including tellers). The Lords doesn't
publish a "didn't vote" attendance roll like the Commons, so the
figure above conflates absence with abstention.
Recent Hansard contributions · latest 25
2026-06-09
British Council
My Lords, I had the great privilege, from 1998 until 2004, of being the chair of the British Council. Sometimes, it is useful to draw on one’s institutional memory. The reason that the British Council was set up in the middle of the 1930s was to share Br
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton, my great friend, for securing this debate and congratulate him on introducing his Genocide Determination Bill this morning. I will of course be supporting him.
Only a few years ago, I, too, promoted a geno
2026-05-18
King’s Speech
My Lords, I add my voice in expressing my gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Hennessy. The noble Lord gave us a great reminder of the bizarre ways in which our constitution has come into being by historically adding lots of small entities and having norms
2026-04-27
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, it is a source of great regret to me that I will be following the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, and possibly the noble Lord, Lord Nash, into the Lobbies, because I think the Government are making a mistake here. We should have been much more cou
2026-03-17
BBC World Service: Sustainability
My Lords, picking up on the question from the noble Lord, Lord Alton, the risks of transnational repression are experienced by BBC journalists and by journalists from Iran International. Are the Government aware that, only yesterday, a leading commander
My Lords, I cannot begin to express how appalled I am that attacks should have been made upon independent journalists investigating a matter which was a legitimate matter to be investigated by the media. I should declare immediately that I am on the hig
2026-02-05
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support the noble Lord. This legislation presents a unique opportunity to close long-outstanding accountability gaps in the UK’s universal jurisdiction laws and ensure that the perpetrators of the world’s most serious crimes can be brought t
2026-01-12
Iran: Protests
My Lords, I should declare that I am the director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, which has been monitoring human rights abuses in Iran for many years.
A grave human rights crisis is unfolding in Iran. As many noble Lord
2026-01-12
Iran: Protests
To ask Her Majesty’s Government (1) what assessment they have made of the treatment of protesters in Iran, and (2) how they are engaging with the government of the United States on proposed responses to ensure that these are in accordance with interna
2025-12-17
Jimmy Lai Conviction
My Lords—
2025-12-17
Jimmy Lai Conviction
My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Alton, I have been involved with the arrest and subsequent trial of Jimmy Lai. I too am a patron of Hong Kong Watch. I am also on the Joint Committee on Human Rights, and members of my chambers have been acting for Jim
2025-12-09
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, when I became a practitioner at the Bar as a young woman in the late 1970s, freedom of expression was regularly used as the excuse to justify sometimes horrific porn. When there were discussions about this among lawyers, it was almost invariabl
2025-11-27
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I was stimulated to rise by something that the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, said. She was speaking to the reply that had been given by the Minister, and it made me think that what has to be looked at here is the law and its inadequacies in deal
2025-11-27
Crime and Policing Bill
Before my noble friend rises to reply, I want to emphasise, as someone who has practised at the Bar over many decades, like the noble Baroness, Lady Cash, the importance of our recognising in the course of these discussions that, while we are dealing her
2025-10-20
Official Secret Act Case: Witness Statements
Not the independence of the CPS.
2025-10-20
Official Secret Act Case: Witness Statements
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the charges were brought under the Official Secrets Act, which dates from the beginning of the 20th century, which is one of the reasons it was changed? Unfortunately, the charges were brought when it was still runn
2025-10-16
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, this Bill presents a unique opportunity to close long-standing accountability gaps in the UK’s universal jurisdiction laws and will ensure, if the amendments are received, that perpetrators of the world’s most serious crimes can be brought to j
2025-09-09
Daesh Crimes: Accountability (JCHR Report)
The noble Lord has the sympathy of all of us who are barristers, because we have all had the experience of being handed a brief at the last minute and having to struggle with issues that we had not anticipated. I will raise some of the issues that concer
2025-09-09
Daesh Crimes: Accountability (JCHR Report)
My Lords, it is my honour to introduce the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report, Accountability for Daesh Crimes; it is the JCHR’s second report of the 2024-25 Session, which started last December. In this work, our committee held six oral evidence se
2025-09-09
Daesh Crimes: Accountability (JCHR Report)
That the Grand Committee takes note of the Report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights Accountability for Daesh Crimes (2nd Report, HL Paper 121).
2025-09-08
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, if I may, I first thank the new Minister for his response to the amendments that I placed before the Committee. All I can say is that one man’s flexibility is another man’s uncertainty. I raised the uncertainty for people who have disrupted the
2025-09-08
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 203B and 203C in this grouping, which I have signed, but I am largely speaking on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Alton, who, as noble Lords have heard, has been involved in quite a serious accident where it was very l
2025-09-08
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I want to reiterate what has just been said on Amendment 153. Like the previous speaker, I too have had experience of dealing with domestic servitude. I chaired an inquiry for the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Scotland which was deali
2025-05-19
Employment Rights Bill
May I just add to that? My concern is that my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti is right that, in law, one should not use contractual agreements to avoid criminal processes. However, you do not have criminal processes unless you have a complainant, and often
2025-05-19
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 101 in my name, in which I am joined, as we have heard, by the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, but also by the noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, who, of course, was the leader of the TUC, and by the noble Baroness, Lady Morri
Source: hansard.parliament.uk via hansard-api. Snippets shown
verbatim from the search API; click any debate title for the full record.
Register of Interests · 5 entries on file
Declarations under the Lords Code of Conduct. Free text — no monetary values, no hours worked. A declaration that an interest exists, not a claim about its size.
Category 1: Remunerated employment etc.
-
Chair, Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA)
registered 2024-09-03 · amended 2025-04-05
-
Director, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
registered 2019-01-08 · amended 2025-04-05
-
Occasional income from writing and speaking and chairing independent inquiries
registered 2018-12-13 · amended 2025-04-05
-
Member of the Bar
registered 2010-04-22 · amended 2025-04-05
Category 3: Land and property
-
House in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA from which rental income is occasionally received
registered 2019-06-14 · amended 2025-04-05
Source: UK Parliament Members API (Lords register). Refreshed weekly.
Read the full
Lords Code of Conduct
for what each category covers and the disclosure thresholds.
Party history
1997-10-27 → present
Labour
current
Government posts
None recorded.
Opposition posts
None recorded.
Committee memberships
2024-09-05 → 2026-01-27
Human Rights (Joint Committee)
2023-01-31 → 2024-05-30
Human Rights (Joint Committee)
2012-05-16 → 2015-03-30
Human Rights (Joint Committee)
2015-06-08 → 2019-07-01
European Union Committee
2015-06-12 → 2019-07-02
EU Justice Sub-Committee
Chair
+£15,025/yr
2021-04-14 → 2023-01-31
Justice and Home Affairs Committee
2026-01-27 → present
Domestic Abuse Act 2021 Committee
Chair
+£18,305/yr
Contact
Parliamentary office
hilary.hard@btinternet.com
01708 379482 · House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
01708 379482 · House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
Website
APPGs (2026) · 5 active officership(s) · 8 historic
| Group | Role(s) | Funders | Officers in group | Next deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arbitrary Detention and Hostage Affairs
Subject Group
|
Vice Chair | International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute · Magnitsky Foundation | 4 | 2027-01-04 |
|
All-Party Parliamentary Group on International Law, Justice and Accountability
Subject Group
|
Vice Chair | — | 4 | 2027-02-22 |
|
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Lawyers and Judges at Risk Globally
Subject Group
|
Co-Chair | — | 5 | 2023-01-16 |
|
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid
Subject Group
|
Vice Chair | Legal Aid Practitioners Group | 6 | 2024-05-15 |
|
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prevention of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity
Subject Group
|
Vice Chair | Aegis Trust | 4 | 2025-01-15 |
One row per active APPG. Funder names link out via the
/appgs Top secretariat funders panel — click any funder
there to open its full relationship graph. Officer matching is name-based against
the parliament.uk register text and may miss titled / hyphenated variants.
Written parliamentary questions · 2026
Showing
4
of 4 tabled
4 answered(100.0%)
2
departments
2026-03-26
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Internet: Sexual Offences
Answered
Source: UK Parliament Members API. The amber "interest" tag is set
by Parliament's own system when the asking member has a register entry
it deems related — typically a paid role or directorship in the
sector being asked about. Click any "i" icon to see the full
question and the department's answer.
Bills sponsored & supported · 2026
0 bills
0 as lead sponsor
0 as supporter
No bills sponsored or supported in 2026.
Source: UK Parliament Bills API. "Lead" sponsor is the
primary mover (sortOrder = 1); "Supporter" rows are
members of either House who
backed the bill at introduction. Year is the bill's first-reading
date.
Historic bills (all-time)
3 bills
3 as lead sponsor
0 as supporter
| Bill | Info | Role | Status | Introduced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genocide (Prevention and Response) Bill [HL] | Sponsored | 3rd reading | 2023-11-23 | |
| Immigration Control (Gross Human Rights Abuses) Bill [HL] | Sponsored | 2nd reading | 2020-01-22 | |
| Immigration Control (Gross Human Rights Abuses) Bill [HL] | Sponsored | 2nd reading | 2017-06-28 |
Same source as the year-scoped panel above, but unconstrained by
year. The "Sponsored" tag = lead sponsor; "Supported" = backed at
introduction. Sorted newest first.