Clause 13 - Requests for assistance from overseas authorities
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
9:10 am
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
Good morning, Mr. Benton. I welcome you back to the Chair. It is interesting that the massed ranks of the Opposition outnumber the slightly less massed ranks of the Government. I am now tempted to call for a Division, but I am reluctant to put the Government Whip under such pressure. He has been so co-operative, and I hope that he will continue to be so. I hope also that he will note that I am not taking advantage of our temporary superiority in numbers. I will store it up as a favour to be cashed in on a future occasion.
I shall refer briefly to what was said in another place on 23 January, when some pertinent remarks were made by my noble Friend Lord Carlisle of Bucklow, a distinguished former Minister in the days of the Conservative Government and a close personal friend. As always, being a distinguished and senior lawyer, Lord Carlisle alighted on some interesting points. When I first read the clause, I was puzzled about the phrase ''territorial authority''. I do not know whether members of the Committee have read clause 28(9), under which ''territorial authority'' is interpreted as the Secretary of State in England and Wales and the Lord Advocate in Scotland.
Unfortunately, the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael) is not in Committee this morning, otherwise, as a distinguished Scottish lawyer himself, he could explain the role of the Lord Advocate. I do not propose to do so. I have no criticism to make of the Lord Advocate. I have picked up some Scots law in my time, but I am certainly not qualified in it.
I was worried that it would be only the Secretary of State who was regarded as the territorial authority in England and Wales. That is why we have suggested in the amendments that the United Kingdom Government be the territorial authority. There are strong rumours that the Government reshuffle will take place today, so it is particularly appropriate that we should be querying whether the territorial authority should be the Secretary of State alone or the entire UK Government. If the strong rumours in the press and the media over the past few days are true and that there will no longer be a Home Office and a Lord Chancellor's Department, but that a ministry of justice will be created, it makes it even more crucial to take into account what the Government may have in mind. No doubt the Minister is privy to at least some of what is being planned in the forthcoming reshuffle. I hope therefore that he might agree that it would be wise for the whole UK Government to be the territorial authority, not the Secretary of State.