Clause 2 - Penalties
Aviation (Offences) Bill
Mr Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw, Labour)
This clause is much more straightforward than the previous one. In essence, it allows for an increase in the penalty from two years to five years for the offence of endangering the safety of an aircraft or a person in an aircraft.
The air navigation order in which the disruptive passenger offences are set out is subsidiary legislation to the Civil Aviation Act 1982. The powers set out in section 61(2) of that Act restrict the penalty to two years for conviction on indictment of such an offence. It is clear to me—and, I am sure, to other Committee members—that two years is not a sufficient penalty for the serious offence of endangering the safety of an aircraft: two years for endangering an aircraft that could have 400 people on board is an absurdity in this day and age. This clause amends that Act to raise the maximum penalty for this offence to five years, thereby allowing a subsequent change to the relevant air navigation order.
Raising the maximum penalty to five years carries the advantage of making the offence automatically arrestable, in accordance with section 24(1) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and equivalent provisions in Northern Ireland. Referring back to the example that I gave earlier of the flight from Vigo to Glasgow that went to Cardiff, the offence would have been automatically arrestable. However, as there is no equivalent provision in Scotland, the offence would not have been automatically arrestable in Glasgow. In Scotland, a police constable has a common law power of arrest, which has to be justified depending on the circumstances in a particular case. In practice it may be possible to justify arrests for a serious offence of this nature, but I am advised that it would be far preferable, for legal certainty, to create a power of arrest in statute. Therefore, I give notice that I intend to rectify that by tabling on Report a small amendment to the Bill to make this offence arrestable in Scotland for when it becomes arrestable in the rest of the UK. It would have been much more advantageous if that had been done earlier, but it has taken a bit longer because of devolution and reserved powers and so on. This is an important part of the Bill, and we need to ensure that things are not only done but done properly. [Interruption.]