Clause 94 - Making of order
Proceeds of Crime Bill
9:45 am
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
My hon. Friend has made an important point. The hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland pointed out, in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Beaconsfield, that the discretionary regime was consistent with practice in the Scottish courts in related fields of law—until now. The change from ''may'' to ''must''—from discretionary to mandatory—was not foreshadowed by the Scottish Minister for Justice, so the Scottish Parliament has not yet debated it. Whatever Labour Members might say in Committee, we do not know whether the Scottish Parliament would want to change the wording back, to make it consistent with previous Scottish practice.