Clause 55 - Duty to give notice to foreign
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
4:44 pm
Mr James Paice (South East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
Non-UK residents are most likely to be residents of the foreign authority, but that is not necessarily the case. Amendments Nos. 104 and 107 are effectively the same, and would ensure that there was written evidence that the offender had adequate opportunity to defend himself and to gain access to legal advice.
The Minister was not here—that is understandable, and not a criticism—for some of the earlier proceedings when we debated the provisions for legal advice in the Bill. The difference in this context is that the provision concerns a non-UK resident, who might have to go back to their own country with a disqualification imposed by a British court. It is therefore important that the notice to that foreign authority should, in addition to all the other items listed in subsection (2), confirm that the individual had
the opportunity to gain access to legal advice and to defend himself. The amendment does not say that that person has received legal advice, but that they have had the opportunity to obtain it if they so wish.
Bearing it in mind that that non-UK resident may have a poor understanding of English, the issue of legal advice becomes even more important, because they must understand the implication of the action that has been taken against them in a British court. The two amendments are therefore straightforward, and I shall not detain the Committee in explaining them at length, because their purpose is self-evident.
Amendment No. 106 is a small amendment, and I suspect that the Minister will say that it is self-evident. It would require that, where an offender did not take part in the proceedings, a notice to a foreign authority issued under subsection (5) should be accompanied by evidence that the offender was notified—in other words, that the offender knew what was going on. We believe that it should be made clear that the evidence that the offender was notified should be in writing. It is a small, and perhaps pedantic, point, but we believe that it should be included in the Bill, so that we can be certain that things have been done properly.
The point behind the amendments is that, whatever happens in the UK, we are dealing with an issue that may have implications in another country and judicial system, so we need to adopt a belt-and-braces approach. We must ensure that when an individual returns to the country where the notice will be received, the system in that country is aware of all the implications of what has happened in the British judicial process. That is the purpose behind the amendments.