Clause 22 - No order made: reconsideration of benefit
Proceeds of Crime Bill
12:45 pm
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
We are about to discuss a minor drafting issue, but one that would improve the clause. Clause 22 explains about the reconsideration of benefit. It states:
``This section applies if . . . a court has made a confiscation order''.
Like other sentences in the Bill, when I first read the next sentence I had to pause. It continues:
``the prosecutor or the Director believes that if the court were to find the amount of the defendant's benefit in pursuance of this section it would exceed the amount found as his benefit for the purposes of the order.''
On the face of it, that provision has a contradictory feel about it, but that can be readily cured by inserting the word ``now'' between ``to'' and ``find'' and the word ``originally'' between ``amount'' and ``found''. The insertion of the word ``original'' between words ``the'' and ``order'' in line 20 would be an alternative way in which to approach the problem.