Clause 29 - Defendant neither convicted nor acquitted
Proceeds of Crime Bill
6:45 pm
Mr Bob Ainsworth (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Coventry North East, Labour)
I accept that there would be a certain neatness. Equally, the hon. Gentleman must accept that I am not satisfied that using part 5 would be as effective in all circumstances. As he rightly pointed out, we are talking about circumstances in which the defendant has either broken out of custody or is in complete breach of bail. In most cases, we are talking about the former. It would be a retrograde step to remove from the legislation the provision to continue to hold property that has already been restrained after someone has broken out of custody. It could weaken the provisions that we already have for drug offenders, although I accept that we are widening the legislation.
I accept that that is an important issue, but for the reasons that I have mentioned, I urge the Committee to accept clause 29 and maintain the provision in the legislation.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 29 ordered to stand part of the Bill.