Clause 9 - General functions of the Commission
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 83, in page 8, line 38, leave out 'broadly'.
I, too, welcome you to the first sitting that you have chaired, Miss Widdecombe. Like my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice), I have had the pleasure of working under you in other work in the House, and I welcome the fact that you will chair some of our sittings.
The amendment to clause 9(1)(f) is a probing amendment. We were puzzled by unfamiliar drafting. I do not recall having seen in other statutes references to things that ''broadly'' correspond, which seems rather inexact drafting. That struck us as important to probe. As my hon. Friend says, one often finds in probing that the Government's answers raise even more questions than the initial questions. As he said, he was less happy at the end of the previous debate than at the beginning. This may be a similar matter.
The Secretary of State will make regulations relating to the National Criminal Intelligence Service and the National Crime Squad, two important bodies that deal with the most serious offences. I recently met the director of the National Crime Squad, who briefed me about its important work. Few bodies are more important in law enforcement in this country, because of the responsibilities that NCIS and the NCS have. Why are we dealing with such a vague term as powers that ''broadly'' correspond to those conferred on the commission?
Like my hon. Friend, I do not want to detain the Committee too long, so, having put our concern on record, I shall listen with interest to the Under-Secretary's comments.