Clause 54 - Application of section 55
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Mr James Paice (South East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 70, in
clause 54, page 36, line 4, leave out 'in prescribed circumstances' and insert
'where a member state other than the United Kingdom has declared that it will apply discretionary conditions to the recognition of disqualifications, as described in Article 6(2) of the Convention on Driving Disqualifications 1998'.
In passing, I commend the Minister on the way in which she has fulfilled her responsibilities on her first day in this Committee. I also welcome the latest addition to our discussions, the Under-Secretary of State for Transport. He is here in name but he has not been present in person for most of the proceedings so far. I welcome the Minister, who will handle the chapter dealing with driving disqualifications.
Amendment No. 70 is a probing amendment, as so many of the amendments are. It would amend subsection (4), which says
''Section 55 does not apply in prescribed circumstances.''
Later, we are told that ''prescribed circumstances'' basically means whatever a Minister says. I want to hear from the Minister what is really meant by the term. We are seeking to remove ''prescribed circumstances'' and instead say that clause 55 should not apply
''where a member state other than the United Kingdom has declared that it will apply discretionary conditions to the recognition of disqualifications''
in the convention. It is perfectly clear what we mean by that. Obviously, if another country has decided not to apply the convention in total, but will apply discretionary conditions from the convention, that should be reflected in how we deal with that country. It is quite clear that clause 55 should not apply in those circumstances.
There may well be other circumstances in which clause 55 should not apply that I cannot think of at present. I shall not pretend to the Minister that I am unduly wedded to the insertion that the amendment would make, although I think that it is important, and the situation that I mentioned certainly needs to be a prescribed circumstance. I want to know what other circumstances the Minister thinks could be prescribed, apart from his jocular agreement that they are anything that a Minister thinks they should be. It is important to put on record the sort of circumstances in which the Minister envisages clause 55 not applying.