Clause 20 - Overseas freezing orders
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr David Heath (Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 134, in
clause 20, page 12, line 16, after 'other', insert 'judicial'.
The amendment would introduce ''judicial'' into line 16 of the clause so that it would read, ''any other judicial authority in the country.'' That would act as a safeguard against the extension of the quite significant powers given to administrative authorities that are outside the judicial process. We have already debated the difficulty of translating terms used in other jurisdictions into British law, and I understand why some of the proposals set out in the debate in another place were not acceptable to the Government, because they defined matters in terms of a court exercising criminal jurisdiction. We still have the problem of whether the administrative courts have a criminal jurisdiction. I hope that by inserting ''judicial'' we make it clear that we are talking not about purely administrative authorities in other countries having such a right, and that it must be via a judicial process. That is to say, it must be subject to judicial approval at some point within that country, but it also means that it is open to appeal mechanisms and so on, which are the necessary safeguards to ensure a fair process.
There may still be authorities that will fall outside the judicial category, but I cannot think of authorities to which we would want to extend the arrangement that would not be defined as judicial. It seems a sensible precaution to have in the Bill.