My day with Lord Bach

 Libby Clarkson, age 19 from Goole has recently spent the day shadowing Lord Bach Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State from the Ministry of Justice as part of The Youth of Today’s Ministerial Shadowing programme. These are her thoughts on the day.

 I arrived and the private secretary gave me a tour of the MOJ (including where the ministers offices are including Jack Straw) and explained what Lord Bach does-EU and international, legal aid, and the Supreme Court. She also explained the roles of the private secretaries and the rest of the team, and what they do on a day to day basis. She explained the email system, how  the two secretaries split the roles between them, so one deals with civil legal aid; the other criminal etc. Lord Bach was in a political meeting when I arrived so had to wait for him to finish.

 I went to the Lords with him (was impressed he had his own driver!) and sat in a pre-brief meeting prior to him answering a parliamentary question. During the pre-brief Lord Bach checked he understood the question he was answering, and all possible further questions that may be asked. The Parliamentary Question booklet had been prepared by his team, and the process for making the booklet was explained by the secretary earlier on, I was told how Lord Bach liked his question preparing I then watched the Parliamentary questions take place in the Lords, and stayed and watched Lord Mandelson speak, as Lord Bach said he was an impressive speaker and therefore wanted to stay and hear him. The Parliamentary Question  was about how much funding political parties can get from parties overseas, after the Ashcroft affair, the following questions were very political. But Lord Bach responded well and made the Lords laugh on a number of occasions.

Went back to his office and sat in two meetings about legal aid which were very interesting. I cannot go into specifics due to confidentiality. Between these I proof read letters from Lord Bach to individuals (which had been written by a different section of the MOJ, and then are checked by his secretaries and then by Lord Bach) and highlighted submissions (documents about a specific meeting and information points and aims etc), which are tasks undertaken by his private secretaries.

I then sat in a pre-brief meeting before Lord Bach was due to go talk in the Lords about legislation. During my time in the Lords I went backstage and his secretary explained the voting system of the Lords and how it differs from the Commons, she also explained that you cannot walk on blue carpet and if you do you cannot talk) I finished for the day before he went into the Lords for the debate.

I learnt the importance of the minister’s team and the different roles they have. Going backstage in the Lords was so cool, as I have never had the opportunity to do that. It was great to see what really goes on in the build up to a minister speaking in the Lords i.e. the Parliamentary Questions booklet, pre-briefs etc.

I was surprised by how much preparation and hard work is put in before the Lord speaks in the Lords, and how precise the docs he takes with him are. As Lord Bach is the only Lord from the MOJ his role is very important, this was highlighted by his secretary.

Also it was surprising how down to earth he was, and how interested he was in what I did. It was surprising that he was like everyone else i.e. a football fan etc, as I have met many MPS who are the complete opposite.

 I would love to go into politics!!!! I am interested in changing things for the better and making a difference. I currently campaign with East Riding Youth Assembly and my main campaign is transport. I would love to be about to introduce bills and change legislation.