Clause 6 - Making of order
Proceeds of Crime Bill
8:55 am
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
The Minister misunderstands on several counts. He was not discourteous. Indeed, he was very courteous in telling me of the changes before the sitting. I have no problem with that. I was here only two minutes before the Committee started because the Home Office intends to introduce a great raft of emergency legislation next week, and I had to spend a considerable part of last night poring over it and then discussing it with colleagues before coming here. That glut is not of my making. I am here only to scrutinise the Bill.
I understand what the Minister says. It is abundantly clear that, acting apparently on representations made on Second Reading by Back Benchers, he spoke to the Scottish Executive and is now able to inform the Committee that the Scottish clauses will be amended to bring them in line with those for England and Wales. That, however, raises a number of important points.
First, I would like to know from either Minister—I am sure that they can tell us—why the Scottish Executive initially wanted a different regime from England and Wales that would provide a much greater measure of judicial discretion. I can hazard some guesses, but given our discussions we are entitled to a full answer. I shall make some assumptions. The Minister can shoot them down, but my first guess is that the Scottish Executive may have considered that the proposals, as drafted for Scotland, are capable of meeting the objectives sought by the Government, so there would be no public policy issue that the legislation would not bite if judicial discretion were provided.
My second guess is that the legal advisers to the Scottish Executive may have been concerned when they read what the Government proposed originally for England and Wales. They may have been worried about its draconian nature and considered that there was a need to retain those judicial discretions that are often regarded as important for the liberty and rights of the individual. That is especially so given the most unusual power that is being conferred on the Government of being able to confiscate assets that may not be linked directly to a specific crime, on the grounds of criminal lifestyle.
We must have an informed discussion about the policy decisions that underlay the original decision to have a different regime in Scotland from that in England. When we discuss the parts of the Bill that relate to Scotland, I shall want a detailed explanation of why the Scottish Executive have changed their mind in light of the comments that were made on Second Reading. At that time, the Bill was presented by the Government as being competent and capable of performing certain functions, yet they have now changed their mind. Was that a cosmetic decision? Has there been some characteristic arm twisting of the Scottish Executive by Westminster—something that has happened in the past and may happen in the future?