Clause 15 - Postponement
Proceeds of Crime Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster, Conservative)
I have spoken to the hon. Member for Lewes (Mr. Baker), and with your leave, Mr. O'Brien, he will speak to amendment No. 27 in a moment. I shall speak to amendment No. 103.
I know that all members of the Committee are in confessional mode about our legal background, or otherwise, and I stand here with trepidation, as I am sure that I am about to incur the wrath of the hon. Member for Glasgow, Pollok (Mr. Davidson).
I admit that my legal career was somewhat less glorious than those of a few other hon. Members who are present—I am looking, with great admiration, at the hon. Member for Redcar, who may even be a Queen's Counsel, and who has, no doubt, spent many years practising at the Bar. I spent four years practising law—two years as a trainee solicitor, followed by two years working as a corporate lawyer with Freshfields, one of the big City of London practices, before I determined that the world would not be a much worse place if there were one lawyer less, and escaped to go and run my own business. [Hon. Members: ``Hear, hear.''] That is, I am sure, the highest compliment that I could possibly receive from Labour Members.
As for the clause, I know how difficult it is to draft from first principles. There are more barristers than solicitors present in the Committee, and they probably have a low regard for solicitors' drafting skills. In my experience, current legal education does not accord such skills a high enough priority. This is a large Bill, and I do not wish to be unkind to the Treasury's solicitors, who have no doubt gone to great trouble at short notice to draft it, but, to take up a point that my hon. Friend the Member for Spelthorne made, clause 15 is confusing.
With regard to subsection (3) and the amendment under discussion, what might be the ``exceptional circumstances''? I am unsure. Indeed, the entire issue of postponement is confusing, if one ponders each of the other subsections. It is evident that clause 6 and the whole issue of confiscation orders are referred to. Mention is made of the trigger point, which is the conviction, and a period of up to two years, which is the permitted period, and there is confusion about the postponement going beyond that, which does not seem entirely logical. However, subsection (3) says that there are exceptional circumstances that could rule that out. Will the Minister explain what those exceptional circumstances might be? I hope to reserve the right to discuss what might flow from that explanation.