Clause 14 - Powers to arrange for evidence to be obtained
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
10:15 am
Mr James Paice (South East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
That is a helpful intervention. Clearly, I slightly misunderstood the Minister's earlier comment. None the less, what the Minister says means that it is not simply the receipt of a certificate that takes place, but an exchange of information before that. In practice, what I am seeking to achieve is that some evidence apart from what appears baldly in Bill, which is the simple fact that
''an offence . . . has been committed or that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that such an offence has been committed, and . . . that proceedings . . . have been instituted'',
all of which could be put into two lines of a document. The Minister is telling us that there is more to the matter than that. I am puzzled as to why that is not made clearer in the Bill. The point is that, from what the Minister has said, what I am seeking to achieve, which is that authorities should be given more information than the bald facts outlined in subsection (2), is already provided for, so it is pointless to pursue that amendment.
That brings me back to the issue of dual criminality, which remains a matter of debate and judgment, and on that basis we had better leave the amendment this time. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 14 ordered to stand part of the Bill.