Clause 7 - Requests for assistance in obtaining
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
3:15 pm
Mr Bob Ainsworth (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Coventry North East, Labour)
Amendment No. 17 would place an additional requirement on requesting authorities in the UK to provide information on procedures regarding the gathering and admissibility of evidence in the relevant part of the UK. The consequence of the amendment would be that requests could be rejected for not including such information. As the Attorney-General said in the other place, there is no international obligation on us to provide that information, and there is no particular reason to believe that in every case the authority receiving the request would need the information. Requesting authorities already provide that information where they consider it appropriate or where they need particular procedures to be used to make admissible what is received.
In the other place, the Attorney-General was not saying, ''Let us not do it because we have no obligation to do so.'' What he was trying to say—and what I am saying to the Committee now—is that we have no legal obligation but if we were to include that in the Bill we would provide another hurdle for prosecuting authorities to jump in order to get evidence from abroad. Where they think that that is appropriate, it is in their own interests to seek to say in what form it needs to be gathered for the purposes of
UK law, but we need the flexibility for things to continue to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The hon. Gentleman's amendment takes that away and makes it an obligation in every case, irrespective of whether it is necessary.