Crime and Policing Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 311

What happened: On 14 April 2026, the House of Commons voted 300 to 101 to reject Lords Amendment 311 to the Crime and Policing Bill, backing the government's position to remove this particular change made by the House of Lords. The government argued it was offering its own alternative approach to the underlying issue rather than accepting the Lords' version of the provision.

Why it matters: The Crime and Policing Bill is described by ministers as the largest criminal justice bill in a generation, covering knife crime, violence against women and girls, antisocial behaviour, sexual violence, terrorism and online harms. By rejecting Lords Amendment 311, the Commons cleared the way for the government's preferred legislative approach to the relevant area of policy. The wider Bill includes significant measures on non-consensual intimate imagery, AI chatbot regulation, image deletion orders, and protest powers, all of which affect millions of people across England and Wales and, in some provisions, the United Kingdom more broadly.

The politics: The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voted unanimously for the government position, joined by most Greens, Plaid Cymru members and a majority of independents voting. All 91 Conservative MPs who voted backed the Lords amendment, as did the Democratic Unionist Party, Reform UK, Traditional Unionist Voice and Ulster Unionist Party. This was one of several related votes on the same day, with the Commons also rejecting Lords Amendments 2, 11, 333 and 334 by comparable margins. The session was marked by some internal Labour tension, with backbenchers raising concerns about protest powers and the pace of scrutiny, though none voted against the government on this specific division.