Clause 6 - Making of order
Proceeds of Crime Bill
10:30 am
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
As we said on Second Reading, we support the recovery of assets of criminals who have benefited from their criminality. We are much more dubious about the possibility of the net being cast to recover assets from large numbers of people who have committed relatively petty crime, under an onerous confiscatory system that seems to shift the burden substantially against those people and which could give rise to injustice. That is why we want to explore all the possibilities, of which the amendment is one, to try to prevent that from happening.
I have never said that this is the central, vital amendment. As I explained earlier, the problem could be approached in other ways. However, I say to the Minister that, having listened to all that has been said, I am not optimistic about future amendments and that is why I shall stick to this one—if not like a mollusc, like a limpet.