Clause 13 - Interpretation
Criminal Justice and Police Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Charles Clarke (Minister of State, Home Office; Norwich South, Labour)
Unless my memory fails me, I think that we discussed the matter in some detail when we debated an amendment to clause 1.
The key point is that the general powers of the police apply to the territorial police forces. The British Transport police specifically asked to be included because of the offences in clause 1 that involve railway lines and railway transport. We have no intention to include other police forces, such as the MOD police or parks police, in the Bill. The hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) is right that the Armed Forces Bill contains a proposal about general MOD police powers in this context, but we do not intend to include the powers in this Bill. There is no reason to include the MOD police. Should they say that they think there is an issue here, we would re-examine it, but we do not see any need to legislate on that now.