Clause 70 - Offences in connection with reporting
Criminal Justice Bill
4:00 pm
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
I should not have thought that there was any scope for recovery of costs against a third party. I may be wrong, but I have certainly never heard of it. Substantial costs have certainly been incurred in notable instances. If ever the observance of reporting restrictions was essential for the processes of justice to be done, it is here.
I am grateful that when we met the Minister of State, Lord Falconer, he took what we said into account, and what had not been part of the package previously then became so. I heartily approve of that, but it has to work. The temptation to subvert it in the undoubted media interest that would be generated may be considerable, and I do not want the whole system to break down because of it. I have no particular desire to lock people up, but the penalties must be sufficient to provide deterrence.
Now that the Minister has reassured me on the custody penalties, it is mainly the financial penalties that should be re-examined. Obviously, any judge would be reluctant to send someone to prison and would prefer to impose a financial penalty, but the penalty must be substantial enough to make a large
organisation—a newspaper—feel the pinch. For this, as for health and safety at work matters, small penalties—the petty cash—are inappropriate. Larger penalties are needed to send out a clear message and to affect the bank balance sufficiently to lead to a footnote in the shareholders' report.