Clause 33 - Discontinuance of proceedings before court appearance
Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Crispin Blunt (Reigate, Conservative)
In previous sittings, it has usually been the Minister who has been speaking when we have adjourned for lunch. On one occasion during consideration of a previous Bill, he was able to go and consult his notes on the issue of national insurance numbers and find some arguments that he did not have in the morning. I am glad to say that, on that issue, the Government are now acceding to the wish of the majority of the parties represented on that Committee.
Having had a chance to go and consider the substance of the Minister's intervention before lunch, I have reinforced my conviction that amendments Nos. 176 and 177 should be accepted. They place a duty on
the prosecution to disclose the discontinuance of proceedings when the prosecution has responsibility for handling a case and when the Director of Public Prosecutions has the ability to discontinue proceedings without the victim being aware of it. Of course, once the proceedings have gone to court, they have, in a sense, become public. Therefore amendments Nos. 176 and 177 deal with the situation in which the victim has no capacity to know what is happening and place a duty on the prosecutor to tell the victim.
I also took the opportunity to look at new clause 2, tabled by the hon. Member for Newry and Armagh (Mr. Mallon), which I will press to a vote if he does not. The new clause covers the wider position when the responsibility shifts from the police to the prosecutor to the court, at which point a judge could direct that proceedings be discontinued.
My amendments address the situation where the prosecutor is firmly in the lead and the victim would otherwise be unable to get a handle on the process or understand what is happening. New clause 2 would put a duty on the prosecutor to provide information when someone requests it. In circumstances where a victim has no direct involvement in the process before a case goes to court, it is reasonable to place a duty on the prosecutor to give the victim the information, but once the case has gone to court and gone public, it is reasonable for it to be up to those with a necessary interest to request that information from the prosecutor.
Amendments Nos. 176 and 177 and new clause 2 stand together as a group and should all be supported by the Committee so that such a duty will be placed on the prosecutor. I want to draw to the Committee's attention the whole background to the issue. If Committee members look at chapter 13 of the review, as well as chapter 4, which deals with the specific requirements on the prosecution, they will see that the entire shape of the debate about the rights of the victim is moving in the direction of giving victims information. The presumption in the review is that victims should get the information that the amendment would make it a duty on the prosecutor to provide. The amendments would provide an opportunity for the House to place a duty on the prosecutor to provide victims of crime with information about the discontinuance of proceedings. New clause 2 provides the opportunity for those who request that information
''if requested by a person properly connected to the matter''.