Clause 4 - Co-operation
Proceeds of Crime Bill
Public Bill Committees, 13 November 2001, 4:30 pm
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
I heard that sedentary intervention. However, as the Minister will know from several cases involving legal professional privilege, lawyers representing people who have been subject to prosecution cannot be required to co-operate in that way. A celebrated case—I cannot remember its name, but I am sure that the Minister's Department will be familiar with it—concerned the Inland Revenue's attempts to get hold of a tax lawyer's papers. The court held that that was a serious breach of legal professional privilege, and impinged on human rights.
Can the Minister clarify who is supposed to fall into the interesting category of persons with functions ``otherwise relating to crime'' who must co-operate with the director? Is the paragraph otiose—that is, unnecessary? If it is required, to whom does it refer?