Clause 51 - Court security officers
Courts Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
We now turn to the important issue of court security—especially important in the light of the recent, heavily publicised escape of a couple of dangerous criminals as they were about to arrive at the Inner London Crown court. The escape was in no way the fault of the security officers at the court, but I am
sure that it has brought into sharp focus the danger attendant on the security issue at and around our courts. I was particularly conscious of that episode because it took place just up the road from my flat in central London. My wife was watching the news flash that announced that two dangerous men were at large in Newington Causeway, and she wisely delayed her departure from the flat until a while later when, unfortunately for the forces of law and order, the two escapees had got clean away.
Amendment No. 63 is the old traditional amendment that has been tabled before, not only to this Bill but to other legislation. If it is clear that the Lord Chancellor is to make regulations, clause 51 should state that he ''shall'' rather than ''may''
''by regulations make provision as to''
training courses and conditions to be met. I am sure that the Minister will not say that the Lord Chancellor might make, or might think about, regulations; in practice there will be regulations, so the amendment is a small point—although I do not expect the Minister to accept it.
Amendment No. 64 is perhaps a matter of greater substance. In our view, previous criminal convictions should be a bar to employment as a court security officer. In the last Parliament I was fortunate enough to represent my party as shadow Minister with responsibility for the Private Security Industry Act 2001. I have taken a continued interest in that subject, but I know that the right hon. Member for Walsall, South (Mr. George) is probably the greatest living expert on the private security industry—I see the Government Whip nodding in agreement. He has made, I think, about half a dozen attempts over the years to secure a private Member's Bill to introduce proper standards for the security industry, and he was delighted to be involved in that Bill's passage.
Like this Bill, the Bill for the private security industry was dealt with in a constructive spirit. There were genuine attempts from both sides to improve it. The right hon. Member for Walsall, South and I were both at the launch of the new Security Industry Authority, and we felt that things were working well; it seemed that several of his misgivings were being reduced because of the way in which the new head of the SIA was operating.
There is a link between that legislation and this, because one of the purposes of having new security industry legislation was to prevent criminals from working in security. It was on that basis that I table amendment No. 64. It is crucial that we do not run into the problem of somebody who might have had links with crime in the past being employed in that capacity.
Such people might no longer be criminals; perhaps the conviction was relatively minor and happened 20 years ago, and the individual has put it behind them—we are all in favour of the rehabilitation of former offenders. However, in the security industry, blackmail could be used by those who are involved in serious and organised crime, and might want to organise escapes from courts.
If there were something in a security officer's past that he wanted to keep secret, somebody could say to him, ''Unless you help us, we'll have you all over the News of the World,'' or another tabloid. It might be a huge scandal that a person who had had a criminal conviction 20 or 30 years ago was employed as a court security officer.
As a matter of principle, it simply should not be possible to employ someone who has had a criminal conviction in that particularly sensitive job.
If the Minister understands the purpose of our proposal, I hope that he will at least say that he will consider with his officials whether he can suggest some wording that might be an improvement on ours. I hope that he at least understands the spirit behind the proposal.